Korea and the United States agreed to include bone-in beef in a revision of Seoul's import rules for U.S. beef, a government official said Friday (Apr. 18).



"The two sides agreed on sanitary conditions that permit most beef parts from cattle under 30 months old to be imported," said Assistant Agriculture Minister Min Dong-seok.



He said that the new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) rules mirror the standards of the World Organization for Animal Health, known by the French acronym OIE.



OIE rules permit countries with "risked controlled" status to export most beef parts, with the exception of some specified risk materials (SRMs) like skulls and back bones.



The agreement is expected replace the current SPS standards agreement signed in January 2006, under which Korea agreed to import boneless U.S. beef from cattle under 30 months old.



Korea halted imports of U.S. beef in late 2003 after Washington confirmed its first case of mad cow disease. The country reopened its market in April 2007, but stopped all quarantine inspections in early October after U.S. exporters repeatedly violated regulations on shipments of bone-in beef.