International Business : Hot Dog Imbroglio May Heat Up Into 1st Big Test for the WTO : Trade: The United States says South Korea is keeping American meat producers out of its markets. It has set an April 30 deadline for action.

A long-simmering trade dispute between the United States and South Korea that began over millions of dollars’ worth of hot dogs may be one of the first big tests for the new World Trade Organization.

Unless South Korea announces regulatory changes by April 30 that would enable more shipments of U.S. frankfurters and other meat products to that country, the United States says, it will take the case to the WTO on May 3.

“This is not simply a $6-million hot dog case,” said a meat industry lobbyist. “This is a very important market that has erected trade barriers.”

“We’ve established we have an excellent case,” said a U.S. government official familiar with the case.

Whether South Korea will allow the dispute to reach the level of the WTO--the global rule-making body for trade that replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in January--or will settle the issue by month’s end is unclear. Most sources said they believe South Korea is moving in the right direction but that many issues still need to be resolved.

“We’ve made a little bit of progress with South Korea, but clearly we’re still a ways off on a number of them,” said Paul Drazek, chief trade negotiator for the Agriculture Department.

“My guess is the day after we request WTO consultations, then Korea could come forward with something that’s a quarter of what we want,” said a skeptical government official.

Leading American meat industry groups filed a petition with the U.S. trade representative’s office in November charging that South Korea restricts its markets to U.S. meat producers in a variety of ways.

The trade office accepted the case, and since then there have been two official meetings between U.S. and Korean officials and continuing discussions between the two nations.

At issue is whether South Korea unfairly closes its markets to U.S. meat producers through unrealistically short shelf-life rules for pork and beef products, and other measures such as long customs clearance times.

The shelf life is the time from which a product is made to when it is bought by the consumer.

Prompting the industry complaint last year was a Korean decision to shorten the allowable shelf life for hot dogs from 90 days to 30.

Korea re-established the shelf life for hot dogs at 90 days in January but has maintained short shelf-life rules of 10 days for fresh chilled pork and 14 days for beef.

Industry and government sources said there is no scientific basis for the government-mandated periods, and the United States has insisted that Korea lengthen them to 50 days for pork and 100 days for beef.

Korea has said it will issue revisions in its food codes by April 30. Unless the revisions include longer shelf-life periods, the United States told Korea, it will take the case to the WTO.

“This system is outdated,” the U.S. trade representative’s office said in a report on foreign trade barriers released two weeks ago. “Government-mandated shelf life periods are unlikely to be based on science.”

Industry sources said U.S. pork and beef producers lost more than $200 million worth of sales in Korea in 1994 alone and that lost sales could climb to $1 billion by 1999 if the alleged trade abuses continue.