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Baucus: S. Korea must fully open to U.S. beef

Montana Senator Max Baucus isn’t backing down from his demand that South Korea must remove all restrictions on U.S. beef exports.  And unless they do, Baucus says he may hold up the free trade agreement with that country.

Baucus is the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction on trade and would be called upon to review the FTA for approval by the full Senate.  In a Wednesday hearing to discuss trade issues, Baucus angrily complained about the decline in U.S. beef’s market share in South Korea, which was at 70 percent in 2003, but is now below 40 percent. 

Baucus told U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk that he wants South Korea’s market opened to all cuts and all ages of U.S. beef exports.  And he chided Kirk for not doing more to make that happen.

“Other countries are doing deals, for their own benefit, at our expense,” Baucus said, “and I am quite concerned—in fact, I’m flabbergasted almost—that we’re not working at getting deals done.”

Kirk assured Baucus that the U.S. is doing all it can—but Baucus still wasn’t convinced.  “If this administration really wanted a free trade agreement adopted by the Congress, it could do it.  It could do it if it wanted to,” said Baucus. “I hear a lot of words—I don’t hear a lot of results.”

At the recent Cattle Industry Conference in Denver, USMEF head Phil Seng cautioned about pushing too hard on South Korea, saying it could hurt current efforts to rebuild U.S. beef’s market share.  South Korea has been the hottest market for U.S. beef in 2010—exports are up 66 percent over last year.