January 17, 2007

Japan may ease inspection of US beef imports

Japan might scale back stringent inspections of US beef imports that were imposed over mad cow fears.

The Japanese government might not inspect all boxes of beef imports from the US, according to a report by "Kyodo News International".

Based on the inspections of US beef imports thus far and those of US meat-processing plants, the Japanese government has found no structural or systematic problems on the part of the US, officials from the agriculture and health ministries said at a public hearing with consumers and importers.

Japan banned US beef imports after the first US case of BSE was discovered in Dec 2003. The ban was lifted in Dec 2005 but reinstated in Jan the following year after a US veal shipment that arrived at Narita airport was found to contain part of a backbone, a risk material banned under a bilateral agreement on beef trade.