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SEOUL, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Major South Korean retailers said on Tuesday that they would resume sales of U.S. beef which were suspended five years ago due to fears about mad cow disease.
U.S. beef returned to South Korea earlier this year but was only sold at small stores and not at major supermarkets. The country's top three discount store chains -- Lotte Mart, E-Mart and Home Plus, which is owned by Britain's Tesco -- said they would resume sales of U.S. beef from Thursday.
South Korea banned imports of U.S. beef in late 2003 because of an outbreak of mad cow disease. Before then, it had imported about 199,000 tonnes, or $850 million worth, of the product a year, accounting for two-thirds of South Korea's beef imports.
U.S. lawmakers have said a separate, sweeping bilateral free trade deal may have trouble making its way through Congress unless South Korea fully opened its market to U.S. beef.
The deal, which has yet to be approved by legislatures in either country, is facing further difficulties with U.S. President-elect Barack Obama saying it should be renegotiated because the agreement's auto provisions favour South Korean carmakers too much.
The agreement to allow in U.S. beef sparked street protests and caused a crisis for South Korean President Lee Myung-bak earlier this year, with several thousand turning out in central Seoul.
The disputes over safety eased after the two countries reached a private-sector deal in June to restrict trade in U.S. beef to cattle under 30 months old and to forbid exports of parts that are thought to pose a higher risk of mad cow disease. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz, Miyoung Kim and Kim Yeon-hee; Editing by Nick Macfie)