U.S. probes Korea, Japan beef bans

The U.S. International Trade Commission has begun investigating restrictions on the nation`s beef trade by governments such as Japan and Korea as a precaution against mad-cow disease.

The Senate Finance Committee requested the probe, saying the U.S. livestock industry has been hurt by the restrictions, the International Trade Commission said yesterday in a statement in Washington.

The ITC, an independent federal fact-finding agency, plans to report by June 6 to the committee, headed by Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana. The trade commission has scheduled a public hearing Nov. 15 in connection with the investigation.

"Our trading partners have an obligation to make decisions based on sound science, and to open their markets to safe, delicious U.S. beef," Baucus said in a statement.

Japan and Korea ranked first and third among overseas buyers of U.S. beef before December 2003, when the first U.S. case of mad-cow disease was found in Washington state. More than 60 nations banned U.S. beef.

The two Asian countries have since resumed trade, limiting purchases to boneless beef from younger animals that scientists say are at lower risk of contracting the ailment, known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.

The U.S. maintains the restrictions are not based on science and that U.S. beef from cattle of any age is safe, if the tissues suspected of causing mad-cow disease, which has a rare but fatal human form, are removed at slaughter. These so-called specified-risk materials include the brain and the spinal cord.

Baucus is among a group of senators from northern livestock-producing states who have threatened to block a $29 billion free-trade agreement with South Korea unless the country eases restrictions on U.S. beef.

(Bloomberg)