South Korea plans to reopen negotiations with Canada on beef imports early next month, the Yonhap news agency reported Sunday, quoting “Seoul officials.”
The decision comes almost a year after talks between the two countries were suspended, Yonhap said.
Before Korea closed to Canadian beef in 2003, Canada was the fourth-largest beef supplier to Korea, “with its high-quality grain-fed beef being valued for its competitiveness in both quality and price,” the Canada Beef Export Federation has said previously.
Canada was in fourth behind the U.S., Australia and New Zealand before the discovery of an Alberta cow with BSE in May 2003, Yonhap said.
