January 8, 2004

Japan No Rush To Lift US Beef Ban

Japanese Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said Wednesday that Japan will take a "step by step" approach when it comes to the process of lifting the country's ban on U.S. beef.

He said Japanese consumer confidence could be eroded if the ban is lifted too soon.

Nakagawa, who spoke to reporters here after a meeting with U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman that lasted for about an hour, would not make any prediction on how long it would take Japan to lift its ban.

Veneman, who addressed reporters separately after Nakagawa departed USDA headquarters, said they did not discuss any details on how Japan would go about lifting its ban on U.S. beef.

Japan, the largest export market for U.S. beef, banned it immediately upon the USDA announcement last month that a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad-cow disease, was found in Washington state in a single dairy cow.

Japan imported 122,142 metric tons of beef from the U.S. in the first five months of 2003, a 22% increase from 99,997 tons in the same period of 2002, according USDA data compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation.

Separate from Nakagawa's visit to the U.S., a team of Japanese government agriculture officials are scheduled to meet with their U.S. counterparts this week to follow up on the U.S. investigation into the BSE case.