Del.icio.us  Digg  facebook  MySpace  Twitter  Google  Bookmark Me  LinkedIn  StumbleUpon  Permalink

U.S.-South Korea Beef Talks Fall Short

Agriculture officials from the U.S. and South Korea could not reach an agreement on beef trade as their talks on the subject ended Thursday, according to news agency Yonhap. 

The two sides met for "technical consultations" over South Korea's rejection of U.S. beef shipments. Washington requested the talks to discuss the grounds of South Korea's rejections, including tiny bone fragments found in each shipment and levels of toxic chemical dioxin that were above South Korea's approved level.

Seoul agreed last year to allow a partial resumption of imports, but specified that only boneless meat from cattle less than 30 months old would be permitted because it is considered safer from mad cow disease.

Ministry official Yoon Young-goo said only that the talks had concluded later Thursday and South Korea would hold a briefing Friday.