Livestock farmers protest against lifting age limit for beef imports, fearful of shrinking domestic market - South Korean report

Concerns over trade pressure from the US on agricultural and livestock products, such as the lifting of the age limit for beef, have become a reality, and livestock farmers in South Korea are protesting.
It is feared that this will lead to a decline in consumption of Korean beef. On the 15th, the Korean Beef Association issued a statement saying, "The National Assembly and the Korean government will take into consideration the right of farmers to live and the right of the people to health, and will never accept the US
"The proposal should not be accepted," he said. It is being analyzed that the U.S. government has taken action by using South Korea's quarantine system, which it has previously found problematic, as one of the points of contention. According to the South Korean government,
Prior to this, Jeong In-kyo, director-general of the trade negotiations bureau at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, met with U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Greer and others to discuss trade policy.
At the meeting, the US side reportedly raised issues regarding Korea's sanitary and quarantine (SPS) measures for US-sourced agricultural and livestock products.
Due to concerns about the outbreak of mad cow disease, Korea has only imported beef from the United States that is under 30 months old since 2008.
The US government has set age restrictions on imports of cattle under one month old because it believes there is little risk of mad cow disease. However, the US livestock industry has warned that China, Japan, Taiwan and other countries have already lifted such age restrictions.
The National Beef Association (NCBA) also called on the U.S. Trade Representative this month to improve the age restriction issue.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative has also pointed out this issue through its Country-by-Country Trade Barriers Reports over the past few years.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said, "There has been no official request from the U.S. government regarding the age limit for imports of U.S. beef, and the U.S. side's position has not been made clear."
The problem is not limited to beef. There are also predictions that demands will be made to reduce tariffs on low-tariff-rate quota (TRQ) items. A typical example is rice, which is subject to high tariffs.
TRQ items include dairy products such as rice (513%), skim and whole milk powder (176%), and condensed milk (89%), as well as natural honey (243%), potatoes (304%), and soybeans (487%).
In addition to these, there is also a possibility that they will pressure China to open up the market for genetically modified organisms (LMOs).