The Honorable Jong Hoon Kim
Minister for Trade
Seoul, Republic of Korea
The Honorable Woon Chun Chung
Minister for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Gwacheon, Republic of Korea
Dear Minister Kim and Minister Chung:

In light of the ongoing public discussion in Korea, we welcome the voluntary commitments made by Korean importers and U.S. exporters to trade only U.S. beef from cattle less than 30 months of age. This private-sector initiative will serve as a transitional measure until Korean consumer confidence in U.S. beef improves.

To support these voluntary commitments, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is establishing the “Less than 30 Month Age-Verification Quality System Assessment (QSA) Program for Korea” administered by the U.S. government under the Agricultural Marketing Act. This program will be operationally identical to the quality system requirements in place for all USDA Export Verification (EV) Programs. (See attachment.) This program will verify that all beef shipped to Korea under this program is from cattle less than 30 months of age.

We understand that in order to support this private sector initiative, if Korean government inspection officials were to find any beef shipped to Korea during the transition period that is from cattle 30 months of age or over, they would return the relevant beef or beef products to their owner.

The governments of the United States and Korea agree that brains, eyes, skull, and spinal cord from cattle less than 30 months of age are not specified risk materials under World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) guidelines or food-safety hazards. Importers and exporters in our two countries have nonetheless indicated that those items have not been traded in the past, and, until there is market demand in Korea for such products, our expectation is that such commercial practice will continue.

When auditing a representative sample of the meat establishments that export beef or beef products to Korea, as provided for in Article 8 of the Import Health Requirements, Korea’s auditors have the right to focus on certain plants, such as those that are newly listed, had been previously delisted, or whose products have raised concerns during port of entry inspection. Accordingly, the concept of representative sampling does not prevent Korean officials from including in an audit a specific plant that they deem necessary to audit.