Meat and spuds at heart of talks

Korea and Canada are scheduled to hold their 11th round of free-trade talks next week, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said yesterday.
The negotiations will take place from Monday to Thursday in Ottawa, Canada, it said.
The two countries have been negotiating since July 2005, and want to reach a deal soon. The four days of talks will mostly deal with food items like beef, pork, barley and potatoes.
Canada, one of the primary suppliers of agricultural products, has been pressing Seoul to ease barriers on farm products and lift a May 2003 ban on imports of Canadian beef.
Before the ban, the country imported roughly 17,000 tons of Canadian beef, or 5 percent of all imports in 2002.
Canada was the fourth-largest foreign seller of beef after the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
Yonhap