US, S Korea meet again on troubled beef deal
Friday, 20 June 2008
WASHINGTON, June 19 (AFP): US and South Korean officials renewed talks yesterday as part of an effort to salvage a US beef import deal that has run aground due to massive protests in Seoul.
South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-Hoon and his US counterpart Susan Schwab were holding talks for a fourth day late Wednesday after a two-hour "informal meeting" earlier in the day, Gretchen Hamel, a spokeswoman for the US trade representative, told newsmen.
The two officials had held "intense discussions" Tuesday in the US capital, Hamel said, adding: "Both sides remain committed to finding a mutually agreeable path forward."
South Korea halted imports of US beef in 2003 after the first confirmed case of mad cow disease in the United States, and the two countries hammered out a deal in April to resume all shipments ahead of a wider free-trade pact.
But a wave of protests has put new President Lee Myung-Bak, whose approval rating has plummeted quickly since he took office in February, under pressure to scrap the agreement.
South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-Hoon and his US counterpart Susan Schwab were holding talks for a fourth day late Wednesday after a two-hour "informal meeting" earlier in the day, Gretchen Hamel, a spokeswoman for the US trade representative, told newsmen.
The two officials had held "intense discussions" Tuesday in the US capital, Hamel said, adding: "Both sides remain committed to finding a mutually agreeable path forward."
South Korea halted imports of US beef in 2003 after the first confirmed case of mad cow disease in the United States, and the two countries hammered out a deal in April to resume all shipments ahead of a wider free-trade pact.
But a wave of protests has put new President Lee Myung-Bak, whose approval rating has plummeted quickly since he took office in February, under pressure to scrap the agreement.