Song Miryung: "Korea-US Agricultural Quarantine to Strengthen Communication and Scientific Verification, but Steps Cannot Be Reduced"

Measures in Response to US Request for Improvements
in Korea's Quarantine Procedures at the Briefing on the 7th

The government has decided to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) technology into the South Korea-US agricultural quarantine negotiations to enhance verification capabilities and strengthen communication for the negotiations. This move comes in response to the US request for "improvements to Korea's quarantine procedures."

Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Song Miryung stated, "The phrase 'improving quarantine procedures' is included in the event of a Korea-US agreement," adding, "To this end, we will strengthen communication during the Korea-US quarantine negotiation process and enhance scientific verification capabilities by utilizing AI."

Yonhap News Agency

However, she made it clear that this does not mean the procedures will be simplified or the number of steps reduced. Minister Song explained, "There are eight steps in the quarantine negotiations, and it is impossible to simplify the process or artificially accelerate it. Advancing the process is not something we can do unilaterally; it requires communication between both countries and falls within the domain of science and experts, not politics."

To strengthen communication in the Korea-US quarantine negotiations, the government has decided to operate a "US Desk" dedicated to communication with the United States. Minister Song said, "The US Desk will clarify the Korea-US contact point," and added, "We will also increase the scientific precision of quarantine responses by utilizing AI."

In response to questions about items for which the US has requested import approval, Minister Song said, "Potatoes from 11 US states are currently in the sixth stage of quarantine, and potatoes from 22 US states have already been approved for import. However, they are not competitive with domestic products in terms of price or quality. Even if potatoes from the remaining 11 states are imported, we expect the impact on the domestic market to be limited."

Minister Song remarked, "This time, we avoided a crisis," but emphasized the need to strengthen agricultural competitiveness. She said, "Although we do not know exactly when, we will continue to face pressure for further agricultural market openings. We must prepare by improving the competitiveness of our agricultural industry and work to diversify and expand our agricultural export markets."

Regarding the partial amendment to the Grain Management Act (Grain Act Amendment), which passed the National Assembly plenary session on August 4, she stated, "Our plan is to proactively manage supply and demand so that surplus rice is minimized in line with demand," and added, "We will prepare the enforcement decree and other measures to ensure this law can be implemented sustainably, while communicating with farmers and other stakeholders."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.