U.S., South Korea Said to Resolve Dispute Over Meat : Trade: U.S. objected to South Korean import restrictions of hot dogs and other products.

South Korea has agreed to make key changes in its regulations governing U.S. meat imports, hopefully ending a contentious trade flap between the two nations that began last year over hot dogs.

If Seoul now follows through with the agreement, which was reportedly reached in meetings within the past week, it would squash a potential high-level U.S.-South Korea confrontation at the new World Trade Organization.

The U.S. meat industry has charged that South Korea unfairly restricts its markets to U.S. meat producers through unrealistically short shelf-life rules for meat products and other measures, such as long customs-clearance times.

South Korea has agreed, beginning this September, to extend its allowable shelf-life time for imported fresh pork to 50 days from 10, and to 100 days from 14 days for beef, said Jens Knutsen of the American Meat Institute.

The South Korean government has also agreed to put meat products on a “priority status” in its customs clearing process, to enable imports to clear in two to five days.

“The meat industry is very happy,” Knutsen said. “Korea is one of our four major trading partners, and we’d like to see that market grow even more.”

South Korea bought over $200 million worth of U.S. beef and pork last year, and industry sources said its appetite for U.S. meat could absorb much larger quantities.

South Korea is one of the few countries in the world to have government-mandated shelf-life rules. The shelf-life is the time from which a product is made to when it is bought by the consumer.

As part of the agreement, Knutsen said, Seoul promised to replace its current shelf-life regulations with the more widely used manufacturer’s “sell-by” dates for meat and meat products by July, 1996.

Prompting the industry complaint last year was a Korean decision to shorten the allowable shelf-life for hot dogs from 90 days to 30 days. Korea expanded that rule back to 90 days in January, but kept the short times for fresh pork and beef.

U.S. trade officials recently gave South Korea a deadline of the end this month to revise its food codes or, they said, Washington would take the case to the WTO.

Knutsen said that officials will now be watching to make sure South Korea keeps its promise and incorporates the changes into the new food codes to be released at month’s end.

“We have said we would consider asking for WTO consultations by the first week of May if Korea hasn’t met U.S. concerns. This still stands,” said a government official.

Knutsen said he and other meat industry officials were informed of the agreement earlier this week in a meeting with Administration trade officials, and were told that Washington was sending a letter to South Korea confirming the agreement.

Officials close to the dispute have been cautiously optimistic that South Korea would revise its regulations and not let the issue reach the level of the WTO.

Trade and industry officials have consistently said that Washington has a strong case.