Officials from the US are to visit South Korea this week to discuss the safety measures the US is taking to prevent the spread of mad cow disease, or BSE.
According to a South Korean government official, the four-member US delegation, led by Undersecretary for Farm and Agricultural Services J.B. Penn, will make a one-day visit on Tuesday, reported Dow Jones International News.
The official said the US officials were not expected to ask South Korea to lift its current ban on imports of US beef.
“In our last round of meetings, we both agreed that it isn’t the time to discuss the issue of lifting the ban,” an official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry was quoted as saying.
South Korea, a major export market for US beef, is one of more than 30 countries to have banned imports of US beef since the discovery of a case of BSE in a cow in Washington state in December.
