캐나다 정부가 당사자간 1:1 쇠고기 수입협상을 요청했다는 6월 17일자 [meattradenewsdaily] 뉴스입니다.
2003년 광우병 발생으로 수입이 전면 중단되기 전까지 캐나다는 미국, 호주, 뉴질랜드에 이어 한국시장에서 제4위의 쇠고기 수출국이었습니다. 캐나다는 연간 1만6천400톤의 쇠고기를 수출하여 3천7백40만 달러를 벌어 들였습니다.
Canada – Beef for South Korea
출처 : meattradenewsdaily 17 Jun 2010
http://www.meattradenewsdaily.co.uk/news/170610/canada___beef_for_south_korea.aspx
South Korea is considering bilateral talks with Canada to resolve the beef import issue that is currently being deliberated at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Yonhap News Agency reported officials as saying here Friday.
South Korea banned the import of Canadian beef in May 2003, when mad cow disease was reported there. Canada, which received a “controlled risk” status from the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health in 2007, has been demanding Seoul lift the ban.
Officials at the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said that Ottawa had asked for one-on-one talks between beef experts late last week.
They said Seoul may convene a livestock quarantine consultation committee meeting in the near future to exchange views on how to deal with the Canadian beef issue and could hold talks starting in July.
Canada officially asked for the lifting of South Korea’s import ban in June 2007 but the two sides were unable to bridge differences that caused the matter to be sent to the WTO’s dispute settlement panel in late August 2009.
“The government’s stance has always been that South Korea is willing to hold bilateral talks with Canada on the beef issue if they do not request ‘hard to accept’ demands,” said a farm ministry official, who declined to be identified.
He said that if Canada sticks to its previous demand for complete access to South Korea’s beef market, Seoul will have no choice but to resolve the matter through the WTO.
Seoul has maintained that because Canada has reported 16 cases of mad cow disease so far, there will be a need to limit imports to protect public health.
The brain-wasting illness is suspected of causing the fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
The expert also hinted that even if South Korea loses, the entire dispute settlement process can take up to two years.
“In the case Canada wins, Seoul can still opt to keep its market closed, although this will technically allow Ottawa to restrict South Korean imports commensurate with their ‘perceived’ losses in the beef sector,” he said.
The WTO’s dispute settlement panel can compel a country to change its policies or authorise punitive measures in the case of non-compliance.
Other experts said that Canada may have called for the talks because they decided that it will be best to resolve the dispute outside the WTO’s long-drawn deliberation process.
They added that for Seoul, a settlement outside the world trade body may be preferable since there is a good chance that it may lose, which could trigger demands from other “controlled risk” designated countries to ask for similar market access.
Before the ban went into effect, Canada was the fourth-largest supplier of beef to South Korea after the United States, Australia and New Zealand. It had shipped 16,400 tonnes of beef to South Korea worth US$37.4 million.
bernama.com
