Korean Job Discussion Forums

[asmith]

What is it with Koreans. American beef is bad, they say. But Canadian beef isn't even allowed to get imported into the country.

[Emeliu]

Maybe its the Canadian climate, or their regulations.

[big_fella1]

[komerican]

But, but, but...I thought all the protests last year was about Anti-Americanism? (Sarcasm)

[Palladium]

Canada?!? Isn't that in Texas?

[Bucky]

[earthbound14]

As another poster said, Canada also had BSE and had been banned from being imported by a number of countries. Korea is currently one of the holds outs refusing to import it.


I have nothing against Korea refusing to import it due to health risks, but currently most people think it's safe and considering the vast number of things imported into Canada from Korea and the economic inequality between the two trading partners...it seems a little unfair for Korea to claim protectionism when they are more than happy to deal unfairly with Canada so long as it is in their favour. But for the most part this is a 'public' non issue. American beef was the big issue. I'm not sure Canadian beef would be as big an issue, nor should it be.


The issue of mad cow in Korea was always more than just about healthy beef (the lack of actually knowledge about it was proof of that), it was always about being the little fish eaten by the big fish (which is a valid concern). With Canada, Korea is kind of the big fish (Canada is on the losing end of a trade deficit with Korea).

[crossmr]

[Yesterday]

Everyone (even Koreans) know that Australian beef is the best!!

Australia goes to great lengths to keep any diseases etc out of the country - thats why quarantine is so strict..

at the airport - they will scub clean your shoes for you if you have been to a country known for diseases...

Thats why all pets imported there go through a 6-month quarantine..

well worth it - when other countries respect your food products...

[Bucky]

[Palladium]

[Sooke]

Really? Nobody has gone there yet? OK, here goes...

I know plenty of Korean women who enjoy Canadian beef! In fact, the lucky lady I was with last night enjoyed it three times. Boo-yah!!






You see, I was referring to my phallus as 'beef', and I'm Canadian. Get it?

I'm here all week folks.

[Socks]

[Bronski]

[SHANE02]

Korean beef is not even known to be safe really. No one talks about that in the land of the mighty hanwoo.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2009/07/170_48194.html

Korea put its application in for OIE clearance in late 2007. As there was a testing system and no BSE to report, the country expected to be designated BSE-free (officially, ``negligible risk."). To date, this group is Australia, Argentina, Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Singapore, Sweden, and Uruguay. The next category down is ``controlled risk." The 33 countries in this group either have testing and control systems good enough for consumers not to worry, such as Britain, the epicenter of the disease, Canada, Japan, and the United States, or have questionable testing but no symptoms, like Mexico.

Korea made neither list. Its application was rejected in May last year, and it remained with the rest in the ``undetermined BSE risk" category for another two years.

Although reported, this setback was cleverly positioned by the government in the context of concerns over resumption of U.S. beef imports and drowned out by the noise of those few weeks. No questions were raised publicly.

One reason for rejection was that the country's random testing system, while good on paper, because you don't need to test every single cow, was so poor in practice that it was guaranteed not to find any cases. Here's how.

Nine out of ten cows in the slaughterhouse, where the testing is done, are around 18 months old. That's the age cows are turned into beef. BSE has never been found in young cows under 30 months. It typically appears in cows around 70-80 months old. These older cows are used for dairy. They are slaughtered for use in products such as pet food. Thus, the OIE examiners will give you, say, 1 point, for every beef cow that you test, and 750 for every cow tested in the high-risk dairy category.

Korea scored low because it random tested mostly beef cattle. This was like a terrorist program that body-searched old ladies and ignored men with beards.

Another reason for the rejection last year was that data regarding the ban on animal byproduct feeds was fuzzy. In other words, it was not 100 percent clear that cattle weren't still being fed dodgy meat products.