Canada and South Korean officials are slated next week to hold working-level discussions on the possible elimination of Seoul's ban on Canadian beef imports.

Scheduled to be held Nov. 22 to Nov. 23 in Seoul, the meeting will center on sanitary and phytosanitary conditions, as well as a ruling by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in late May deeming Canada a controlled-risk country for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Yonhap News reported. Such a designation technically allows Canada to export beef from cattle of all ages.

Ministry members expect Canada to ask that Seoul lift all import restrictions based on OIE guidelines. And while they said they respect those, they will likely push for maintaining import limits on specified risk materials while relenting on ribs and other bone parts, according to Yonhap.

"We cannot hold on to the current blanket ban, but we will point out that there have been steady discoveries of [BSE] cases in Canada," an anonymous official told Yonhap.

Until Seoul banned Canadian beef in May 2003 following the discovery of a case of BSE in Canada, the North American country was the fourth-biggest exporter of beef to South Korea behind the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

By Tom Johnston on 11/15/2007 for Meatingplace.com