South Korea, the third-largest buyer of U.S. beef in 2003, rejected the first shipment of the meat to arrive since lifting a three-year ban imposed on mad-cow fears, saying it found a bone fragment that violated an agreement.
The beef, which will be returned or destroyed, came from Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC, said Kang Mun Il, director general at the National Veterinary Research & Quarantine Service.
Shipments from Creekstone have been barred until it provides an explanation, Kang said. Imports from other U.S. companies are unaffected.
U.S. processors including Tyson Foods Inc. and Cargill Inc. were only allowed to return to the Korean market, worth $814 million to them in 2003, after agreeing to limit supplies to boneless beef.
Zero tolerance on bone chips will make it very difficult for the U.S. to return to the market, said Peter Weeks, chief economist at Meat and Livestock Australia.
Additional business news briefs:
NEW YORK
Interest rate worries send dollar lower
The dollar fell to its lowest level in 19 months against the euro on speculation the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates early next year as central banks in Europe increase them.
The U.S. currency extended its losses after breaching $1.30 against the euro for the first time since April 2005, a level where traders had placed automatic orders to sell the dollar. The European Central Bank has raised rates to an almost four- year high. The Fed has left rates unchanged since August.
COLORADO
A private bank for foreigners
When you think of bank secrecy, Switzerland comes to mind, and maybe the Cayman Islands as well. But Colorado? And therein lies the challenge for E. Jerry James, founder of what Worth magazine describes as the United States’ first private bank for foreigners.
James created American International Depository and Trust to take advantage of Colorado’s Foreign Capital Depository Act of 2001, which was intended to attract capital to the state by offering legal protection and financial anonymity to foreign citizens, Elizabeth Harris writes. “We are providing a safe entree into the United States for legitimate businesses,” James said.
The federal government may not request or receive client information without a subpoena or search warrant and, Harris adds, the Colorado legislation “also requires someone seeking recognition of a foreign judgment against a depositor to prove that the decision was rendered in a system of impartial tribunals.”
