It looks like the impasse on the U.S.-South Korea trade agreement will get worse before it gets better. A mad cow disease scare is reaching epidemic proportions among the Korean public. The beef scare is stalling passage of the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement.
President Lee Myung-Bak has been under heavy fire ever since he decided to lift the 2003 ban on importing U.S. beef. The public outcry climaxed in a 100,000-strong protest over the weekend in Seoul.
Koreans are terrified that eating U.S. beef will give them mad cow disease. They shouldn’t be. I noted in an earlier post that approximately one in 35 million cows slaughtered in the U.S. have mad cow disease. Those odds are negligible; our food supply is safe.
If people still want to be scared, that is their right. No one should force them to buy U.S. beef. But why do they want to take that option away from people who don’t frighten so easily? Especially when $20 billion of increased trade is at stake?
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As anyone who’s lived in Korea can tell you, this has nothing to do with beef. It’s a function of anti-Americanism. Beef is the latest excuse.
I have not followed the Korean situation so maybe I speak out of school, But if it has similarities to the Japanese situation, than God bless the protesters.
The US has tried to push it’s beef on them for years, like a duck being fatted up for foie gras. Japan has had a BSE problem, and their solution was simple: Test every animal. That is all they asked from the US. US Beef suppliers were even willing to do that, But have been sued by the USDA to prevent thorough testing!!! http://www.hpj.com/archives/2007/jun07/jun4/Governmentfightstokeepmeatp.cfm
BTW, I have read the Harvard statistical study which propose the US food supply is safe and it is garbage. I eat beef almost every day, and agree that the threat is overblown, but then, none of my relatives have died of this disease and I don’t have to watch the presidential news conferences every time he goes over to Asia putting pressure on countries to buy US beef. untested.
Bush is using US hedgemony to force unpopular trade terms with our Asian allies. Either he is an idiot or he is in the pocket of the Beef lobby. (Yeah, I voted for him too.)
Obviously You struck a nerve here Ryan.
Two more points.
1. The 1/35M number is junk. There is proof that sick cows are not tested. There is even evidence that positive tests have been suppressed before confirmatory retesting. The Asians don’t trust the US gov. to police a powerful industry and neither should we. Let the market decide what is safe. The USDA is only giving cover so that if things do go wrong the the expert witnesses have government testimony that the food supply was safe.
2. The gov. is suppressing the free market. Asian consumers had a problem. They addressed the problem by demanding every animal be tested. US suppliers were happy to test every animal, but the USDA fought them in court. US Beef suppliers are being prevented from performing a test desired by Asian consumers.
Again, I eat US beef almost every day when in the US. I comment here because this is a free market blog and you are on the side of government regulation to subvert the will of the market.
Jcp,
Nowhere does the author call for more government regulation. He’s saying that the demands of the Korean consumers are ridiculous in light of the facts, not that they should not test beef privately if they want to. There is a big difference there.
Alex
There is great evidence that only a small proportion of the cows in the US are being tested. They might conclude that only one cow out of 3 million are infected, by these figures are pretentious and unreliable. The extent to how these tests are taken are questionable.
As you have argued that Korean consuers should be given the choice to choose to eat US beef or not. Yes, that is true. Korean consumers can merely object to buying US beef. But what if they had no choice but to eat it out of ignorance or by consuming a product that contains ingredients made from US beef? As most will know, instant noodles are a popular eatery in Asian countries and especially in Korea. In these instant noodles the flavoring substances are made from grinded beef materials. If US beef are imported there is a high possibility that these beef will be used for the making of instant noodles. Most consumers will buy these products out of ignorance not knowing that they are actually consuming US beef. Another grave issue is that these beef are prone to serve the cafeterias in most local koran middle and high schools.
People around the world have criticised the Korean protest. However, if it began to have impact in their daily lives, would they still be criticising? What if these Korean food products made out of US beef were imported to other countries, causing risks in other areas which do not import US beef. Would those countries merely succumb to the importing of Korean food products?
No they won’t.
It is a question to ask for everyone.
If it were your country, your family at risk.
Even at the slightest risk of containing a disease
that could have been prevented from discrete government
policies, would you not protest?
There have been 3 cases of humans contracting Mad Cow disease in the US. THREE! We all eat U.S. beef in the U.S. Britain is another story, they have had over 500 human cases and some 186,000 cattle cases. Oh yes, United States cattle cases 3. The asians for some reason, that has yet to be explained, other then the mentioned excuse for hating america, are scared out of their minds they are going to catch mad cow disease. Now even if they ate US beef everyday, without it being tested, they’d still have a much greater chance of dying in a car wreck or getting struck by lightning. A case needs to be made for the utter absurdity of being afraid of US beef. And to the other posters: country and family at risk? Come on. Would I protest at the slightest risk of disease? I don’t stand at airports protesting incoming Africans that they might have aids. I am pretty sure that deadly virus is much more prevalent in Africa’s human population then the US cattle having MC. So in conclusion Asians need to be informed properly and great effort taken to educate them about the risk, which is virtually non-existent. Also people who see this as the US pushing our will on other countries, well it’s pushing our money into other people’s countries. They need the meat so they can sell it at home. This isn’t another use of force by the Totalitarian Neo-Fascist Imperial Empire of the Reunited Cause it Feels so Good United States.