S. Korea, U.S. open talks on beef imports

From the Miamiherald.com - S. Korea, U.S. to hold beef import talks

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea has scheduled talks with the United States next week on ending its two-year-old ban on American beef, the government in Seoul said Tuesday. South Korean shut its doors to U.S. beef imports in December 2003 after the first U.S. case of mad cow disease. At the time it was the third-largest foreign market for American beef, after Japan and Mexico. The two-day talks will begin Jan. 9 in Seoul, the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry said in a release.