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Monday, January 8, 2007
LATEST PRACTICES AGAINST U.S. BEEF MAY WARRANT RETALIATION

There is no doubt that U.S. beef is the best and safest in the world, yet occasionally some of our trading partners work up unfair tactics or even excuses to ban shipments outright. Unfortunately, they often base their actions on health concerns that are either inflated or even dishonest. Most of us in beef country are suspicious that these actions are blatant trade protectionism seeking to keep American beef out of their market.

The latest country to discriminate against U.S. beef is South Korea and I am seriously considering the introduction of legislation that would impose sanctions on that nation if it does not end its unfair practices.

South Korea banned U.S. beef because of baseless mad cow fears in 2003. It finally lifted that ban in October of last year and started accepting shipments soon thereafter -- at least that is the official line. In reality, South Korea has rejected every U.S. beef shipment since lifting the ban, often after their inspectors claim to have found tiny pieces of bone fragments in multi-ton shipments. Adding to our suspicions, South Korean officials have thus far refused to produce the alleged bone fragments.

It’s a frustrating situation that may unfortunately require retaliation to end it. I have been in touch with South Korea’s Ambassador and I have stressed to him that I am fully prepared to introduce a bill to provide trade sanctions against South Korea if they don’t end the unfair practices against U.S. beef.

I had to do the same thing with Japan last year after it closed its market to U.S. beef. I introduced legislation to ban Japanese beef from the United States until it opened its market to U.S. beef. I also wrote a letter every week to the Japanese Ambassador reminding him that the ban was unfair and that if it didn’t end the United States would be forced to retaliate against Japanese beef.

That tactic appears to have worked with the Japanese. Now, it may be time to do the same thing with South Korea, only to be effective we will probably have to consider sanctions against a broader range of products because South Korea exports little beef.

I have already communicated my willingness to introduce a trade sanctions bill to the South Korea Ambassador to the United States. I have also stated that I will be writing him a letter every week, just as I did with the Japanese Ambassador, to remind him what is ahead if we don’t see movement on the part of his government.

Trade sanctions are not an idle threat and they should not be taken lightly. South Korea should seriously consider the consequences if it engages in a full scale trade war with the United States because they have a lot more to lose than we do.

I believe I have the necessary support in the Senate to pursue trade sanctions if we don’t see positive changes on the part of South Korea. My hope is that retaliatory legislation will not be necessary and that the government of South Korea will re-consider its policies and actions and will once again allow fair and reasonable trade of U.S. beef -- the safest, highest quality beef in the world.

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