The U.S. Department of Agriculture projected that China's beef imports would rise to a record 175, 000 metric tons this year.
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The South Korean government said it will step up checks on U.S. beef imports but not halt them for now.
Senator Max Baucus (Democrat--Montana) whines that the agreement doesn't go far enough in allowing U.S. beef imports into South Korea.
Its future should not be jeopardised for the sake of a few billion dollars of soyabean subsidies or a few million tonnes of beef imports.
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Any misgivings in Washington about an agreement with South Korea have been more than matched on the streets of Seoul, where thousands have protested against the prospect of American beef imports.
Even before Mr Cunningham made his unexpected announcement Welsh farmers, hit by falling beef prices and the continuing European Union ban on British beef exports, had been blockading ports and hurling imports of Irish beef into the sea.
Europe first banned imports of such beef from America in 1989, citing health concerns.
Prior to Saudi Arabia, only Japan, China and South Africa had halted imports of all Brazilian beef since Brazil announced on December 7 that a 13-year-old cow that died in 2010 in Parana tested positive for the protein linked to the development of BSE.
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EU's ban on imports of hormone-treated beef and genetically-modified foods, for instance.
It wants to respond to growing public concern about genetically engineered food, and thus to reserve the right to reject imports of certain products (it is already in a dispute with the Americans over imports of hormone-treated beef).
Consider the difference between a traditional trade quarrel, such as a dispute over restrictions on steel imports, and the battle over hormone-treated beef.
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