1. BILATERAL/MULTILATERAL ISSUES

KITA asks Assembly to approve EU FTA [English, CSY]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2932923

Summary: The head of Korea’s largest trade organization urged the country’s National Assembly yesterday to quickly ratify the free trade agreement with the European Union.   Sakong Il, chairman of the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), said the Korea-EU FTA is key to boosting the country’s annual trade volume to over $1 trillion.  “The Korea-EU FTA is expected to provide more benefits to us than any other FTA the country has signed so far,” the KITA chairman said while meeting with Rep. Kim Moo-sung, floor leader of the ruling Grand National Party.

Differences Found Between Korean and English Version in Korea-EU FTA ratification motion [English, CSY]

http://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201103071703547&code=710100

Summary: Although the Korean government has corrected translation errors and referred the FTA treaty documents again for deliberation, it was again found that the ratification motion for the Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement still contains mistakes.  This time, in particular, it was found that parts of the contents in the Korean version of the agreement and the local-language versions thereof, including in English, were written differently, thus portending rocky passage of the FTA agreement in the forthcoming main session of the National Assembly.

2. LIVESTOCK ISSUES

Another positive case of BSE found in Canada [Korean: BYK]

http://news.mk.co.kr/v3/view.php?year=2011&no=141575

Summary: MIFAFF explained that Canada had informed the Korean Government on March 5^th that they had confirmed another positive case of FMD in a 77 month old dairy cow.  This is the 18^th case of BSE found in Canada.  This finding will have a negative impact on the ongoing discussions for resuming beef imports from Canada as it will take more time for the Livestock Quarantine Committee to wait and review the Canadian epidemiological report.  Director General Chul Soo Park of Consumer Safety Policy bureau stated, “Depending on the result of the review of the report, if it is concluded that it can cause a serious risk to the public health, Korea could suspend future discussions.”   As the cow that was infected by BSE is 77 months old, it is not included in the under the thirty month category that Korea has been negotiating with Canada. 

U.S. beef exports up due to FMD [Korean: BYK]

http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=101&oid=001&aid=0004947044

Summary: As the FMD that broke out last year continued to spread during the earlier part of 2011, U.S. beef sales have jumped.  According to USMEF, the amount of U.S. beef exports to Korea up to Feb 17^th was 20,340 MT, which is a 81.5% increase over the export volume during the period Jan. – Feb., 2010.  The increase in exports matched with the increase in sales at the retail stores.  The market share of U.S. beef at Homeplus in Feb., 2011 increased to 32%, compared to 23% a year ago.  The U.S. beef market share at Lotte Mart dropped during this period from 28.4% to 25.9%.  But this was due to the fact that Lotte had carried out a lot of discount promotions for Hanwoo beef in Feb., 2011.

School’s in, so milk crunch reaches stores, homes [English, CSY]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2933168

Summary: It’s been roughly a week since the start of the school year, and the milk crunch caused by the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak is rapidly getting worse as demand from schools is draining supply from the rest of the market. Now the shortage is hitting neighborhood shops.  Seoul Milk, the nation’s largest dairy company by market share, sent a memo to convenience stores last month saying it will cut distribution of its milk products by 40 percent and temporarily stop supplying some 10 dairy products. Since then, Seoul Milk says that things have improved.

However, according to the convenience store chain GS25, the supply of Seoul Milk products has fallen by 15 percent, and some larger products above 1 liter have all but disappeared from shelves.  The problem starts at the source, as major dairy companies report their supply of raw milk has shrunk by 3 to 14 percent since the FMD outbreak.

U.S. Beef Exports Surge amid Ongoing FMD Crisis in S. Korea [English, CSY]

http://news.mk.co.kr/english/

Full text: South Korea’s imports of U.S. beef are soaring this year amid ongoing the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) crisis continuing from last year.  According to U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) on Tuesday, U.S. beef exports to Korea recorded 20,340 tons as of February 17th, increasing by 81.5% from 11,209 tons during January and February.   Considering that the U.S. exports more or less than 3,000 tons of beef to Korea per week, the amount of total exports for February is forecast to be twice as much as the same month last year.   Exports for the first two months of the year amount to one fifth of the total volume of 101,816 tons exported to Korea last year.  The total amount of U.S. beef exports to Korea grew by 94% last year compared with the previous year.  As beef imports from the U.S. are rising drastically, sales of the imported beef are growing in the Korean retail market.  At Home Plus, a mega discount store jointly owned by Samsung and Tesco, U.S. beef sales accounted for 32% of the retailer’s entire beef sales volume in February, up from 23% in the same month last year.  On the other hand, Lotte Mart, a retailer run by Lotte Group saw a decline in U.S. beef sales from 28.4% to 25.9% during the same period.

New mad cow disease case in Canada noted [English, CSY]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2933089

Summary: The latest discovery of mad cow disease in Canada on Friday is expected to delay resolution of its dispute with Korea over beef exports.  The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed on Friday the outbreak of mad cow disease in a 77-month-old cow in the western province of Alberta. It is the 18th case of mad cow disease in the country since 2003.  The agency said the dairy cow has been slaughtered. Since no part of its carcass had been used for human or animal food, the agency said the outbreak should not affect its beef exports. Korea has banned imports of Canadian beef since 2003 when the country’s discovered its first case of mad cow disease.  Canada was categorized as a “controlled risk” region by the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health in 2007, and it has been lobbying Korea to remove its import ban.

U.S. beef imports jump due to foot-and-mouth disease [English, CSY]

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2011/03/08/0502000000AEN20110308001100320.HTML

Summary: South Korea's imports of U.S. beef surged this year, industry data showed Tuesday, as Asia's fourth-largest economy struggled to contain foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).  According to the data compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation, South Korea imported 20,340 tons of U.S. beef through Feb. 17 this year, compared with 11,209 tons in the first two months of last year.