ISDS Case Map
Korea
The “People's Countermeasure Council against Full Resumption of Imports of US Beef Endangered with Mad Cow Disease,” an umbrella organization of Korean civic groups and cyber activists issued a statement on June 3 saying that the government "needs to decide for sure that it will fully and permanently prohibit the importation of beef [from US cattle over 30 months old], and demand that the US accept this.”
The sense in Washington is that Congress will either vote against ratifying the US-Korea FTA or will simply not vote on it at all. Bush has yet to send it to Congress for ratification, and he's getting advice on all sides to drop it, to let it slide into the next administration.
Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun said that until the two nations reach an agreement on the age limit of cattle when they are slaughtered for meat to be exported to South Korea, Seoul will not implement its revised sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards. The move effectively allows South Korea to keep its import ban on US beef that has been in place since early October.
Leading U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama, who is close to securing the democratic nomination for president, came out criticizing the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions calls on the Korean government to repeal the US beef deal, stop the violence of the riot police and respect people's voices and rights.
South Korea decided Monday to put off the implementation of its decision to resume US beef imports, the agriculture ministry said in the wake of widespread protests.
South Korean police's brutal suppression toward ever-growing anti-US beef demonstrations by its citizen became the key issue as the confrontation between police and protesters got more fierce.
"Not just the beef deal, but the Lee Myung-bak government's policies are anti-working people and are not right," college student Ju Ha-na, who took part in a head-shaving ceremony in protest, said.
Tens of thousands of South Koreans are rallying Saturday against a plan to import US beef in the largest protest in weeks of anti-government demonstrations.
Farmers, professors and veterans, and citizens protest the government's announcement about U.S. beef import
