MEDIA STATEMENT

29 July 1999

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Zealand Joins WTO Action On Korean Beef Market Restrictions

New Zealand will be represented as a third party at World Trade Organisation dispute settlement action with Korea regarding the treatment of imported beef, Trade Minister Lockwood Smith announced today.

"The United States and Australia have both sought dispute settlement with Korea regarding issues in the beef market," Dr Smith said.

"New Zealand was represented at the consultations phase of the process which were initiated in February 1999, and we will continue to be present, as a third party, as it moves to a formal panel.

The US and Australian complaints relate to the maintenance of separate retail channels for imported beef and various issues related to the operation of current import arrangements.

"New Zealand has a long-standing interest in the liberalisation of the Korean market, which was the subject of agreements between Korea, the US, Australia and New Zealand in the early 1990s," the Minister said.

"Our expectation is that the liberalisation of the market agreed for 2001 will be implemented in a clean fashion.

"New Zealand’s beef exports to Korea have been adversely affected by the Asian economic and financial crisis. But we expect Korea to become a major market for New Zealand beef in the future as its economy recovers and the beef market is fully liberalised," Dr Smith concluded.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>