|
Can you imagine? Tens of thousands of Korean demonstrators protesting
beef coming in from the U.S. (see the picture below the fold). The mad cow or bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE) outbreak in Britain several years ago, and Canada
in 2003, caused countries to close their borders. The U.S. had
some Canadian-originated cases, and got caught in the import ban.
USDA's
trade-at-any-cost leadership opened our borders to Canada beef.
An unprecedented move contrary to the zero tolerance import policy for
not only BSE, but other cattle diseases like blue-tongue and foot and
mouth disease. This move costs U.S. exports to countries who do
not want the animal disease risk, including South Korea. Why we
had to go first, I don't know.
But that's always the case with
our brilliant negotiators. We're "free traders" so we always go
first. Then others will be free traders too. You bet. Good negotiators.
So USDA worked hard to get South Korea's new president Lee
Myung-bak to allow U.S. beef in trade negotiations. They got a
deal with Mr. Lee, but, as always, ignored the public. The public
in South Korea decided they don't want to be ignored.
Here is a picture of the protest. Mr. Lee's whole cabinet -
yes the entire cabinet - has offered to resign. Mr. Lee's
government is 107 days old.
Can you hear them? "Lee Myng Bak, OUT!" they are chanting.
Mr. Lee hoped his decision to end the five-year-old ban on
American beef would help win United States Congressional support for a
free trade agreement between the countries.
His popularity is now below 20%. Fifty percent approval
ratings are marginal, the danger zone. But 20%? Not so
good.
UPDATE: It looks like pink slips are going out.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is expected to replace
up to 10 of his Cabinet ministers and senior secretaries this week in
efforts to ease the public backlash over US beef imports and a
lackluster economy, ruling camp officials said Monday (9 June).
Trackback(0)
 |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed