US senator pens strong warning to S.Korea

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate's top lawmaker on international trade issued a stern missive this week to South Korea's president, warning that failure to end a row over beef imports will doom a newly minted trade pact.

"My support for (U.S.-Korea trade) agreement hinges on whether Korea commits to lift its unscientific ban on exports of American beef," Sen. Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, wrote in a letter to President Roh Moo-hyun.

In the letter, which was released on Wednesday, Baucus threatened to sink the bill in his committee, which oversees trade, unless "American beef is flowing into the Korean market," including bone-in cuts from animals of any age.

Meanwhile, a broad-based coalition of U.S. business groups wrote Baucus and other members of Congress to urge approval of the pact, which also faces strong opposition from organized labor and U.S. carmakers.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N25269384.htm

of our beef than we are ourselves. What do you think?

I mean, to hear that the US was taking the idea seriously. Like, what? That's not the way it normally works.

just waaaaay too much crap to keep track of with this administration.

The Secretary of Agriculture himself was talking about Japan inspecting US meat to get sanctions on US beef lowered. But hey, we'll see what he says next week once the beef lobby's finished with him.