Consumption on the Rise

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Beating the Barrier Canada restores beef market access with South Korea. EIGHT YEARS AFTER BSE was detected on an Alberta farm, leading to a major blow to Canada’s beef export industry, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and International Trade Minister Ed Fast on June 27 announced a breakthrough in restoring long-awaited access to the lucrative South Korean beef market. Canada and South Korea are working to finalize a sciencebased agreement to export Canadian beef, under 30 months of age, back into South Korea – the last key Asian market still imposing a trade ban on Canadian beef since the 2003 outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). “After almost a decade, Canadian beef producers are on track to gain access to the lucrative South Korean market, making our industry and entire economy stronger,” Ritz stated. “The high quality of our beef products combined with the effectiveness and transparency of Canada’s control system is precisely the reason why South Korea can be confident in the safety of Canada’s beef.” The ministers said Canada and South Korea have resolved technical issues and will continue to collaborate until the commercially viable agreement is fully implemented. “South Korea, as one of Canada’s most important trade and investment partners in the Asia-Pacific region, offers tremendous opportunity for workers and businesses in important sectors across Canada,” added Fast. “This important step towards restored access is welcome news. On behalf of Canadian producers we will be closely monitoring South Korea’s domestic process.” The Canadian Beef Export Federation (CBEF) estimates that the agreement could mean more than $30 million for Canadian producers by 2015. In 2002, South Korea was Canada’s fourth biggest beef market and remains a key market for the Canadian agriculture sector. Ritz noted he travelled to South Korea twice to push for the removal of this trade barrier, which led to Canada’s “controlled BSE risk” status from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). In August 2009, Canada requested the establishment of a WTO panel to negotiate access to South Korea. Although confident in its WTO case against South Korea, Canada continued to negotiate a possible bilateral settlement that would provide commercially viable access to South Korea. With this agreement now achieved, Canada will formally request a suspension of the ongoing WTO Panel proceedings once South Korea submits the import health requirements for public consultation on June 28. 20 Canadian Meat Business July/August 2011 meatbusiness.ca
CMC pleased, calls for resumption of FTA talks Canadian Meat Council (CMC) president Scott Entz said the meat processing industry in Canada is very pleased with the announcement. “South Korea represents one of the last remaining major countries to resume trade in beef and beef products with Canada. Finally after eight years Canada will be able to export its quality beef products to the world's tenth largest importer,” Entz stated. The CMC noted that with an estimated 48 million inhabitants and a GDP of over $ 1 trillion, Korea is the largest of the four “Asian tigers” – the others being Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. Canada and Korea are established trade partners, Entz + “South Korea represents one of the last remaining major countries to resume trade in beef and beef products with Canada.” – CMC president Scott Entz recent agreement between South Korea and the United States, the Canadian meat industry is very concerned that postponing the talks any further will seriously affect the competitiveness of the meat industry and all other Canadian sectors exporting to Korea. “If Canada is lagging behind the U.S. and the EU in the implementation of the tariff reduction schedules, the negative impact on Canadian exports will carry throughout the tariff reduction period. Canada will lose its status as a competitive supplier to South Korea for the next decade due to this tariff gap, so it is crucial to resume and finalise the FTA as soon as possible,” stated Entz. “Now that our beef access issues are resolved we can move forward swiftly with more negotiations.” - staff added. In 2010, two-way merchandise trade was approximately $9.7 billion (Canada exported $3.6 billion and imported $6.1 billion). “This agreement with Korea to resume trade in beef is not just good for Canada’s beef industry,” he said. “The agreement also brings hope of renewed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) talks between Canada and Korea to our Canadian pork industry that exported $100 million worth of pork to South Korea in 2010 and $125 million in 2009.” The CMC, he said, is now calling on the Canadian government to resume the FTA talks with Korea that have been interrupted since 2008. With the meatbusiness.ca July/August 2011 Canadian Meat Business 21
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Consumption on the Rise

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