March 16, 2004

Japan May Relent On Blanket BSE Test Insistence

Japan will not insist the U.S. test all the cattle it slaughters before agreeing to restart beef imports if it can offer alternative steps that will ensure its meat is safe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said.

"We have asked the U.S. for measure that will ensure safety, and we are waiting for their response," Fukuda said at a regular press conference in Tokyo.

Japan, which banned imports of U.S. beef after a case of mad cow disease in Washington state, has so far stuck to its demand that the U.S. test all the 35 million cattle it slaughters each year before allowing shipments from the U.S. worth more than $1 billion a year to restart. Dropping the condition may help break a deadlock on talks with the U.S.

U.S. Agriculture Department Undersecretary J.B. Penn failed to convince Japanese officials to ease the beef ban in January when he led a U.S. delegation to Tokyo. The two sides have not held formal talks since then.

The U.S. has so far said it will double cattle inspections to 38,000 head next fiscal year. Other measures imposed since the discovery of a mad cow case on Dec. 23 include a ban on meat for human consumption from cattle unable to walk, and a halt to sales of intestines and heads from animals older than 30 months.

Japan imported about 60 percent of the beef it usually consumes, of which before the ban 45 percent came from the U.S. Some Japanese food companies, such as Yoshinoya D&C Co., the country's third-largest restaurant chain, have been forced to halt sales of beef dishes because they can't secure enough meat from alternative suppliers in Australia and New Zealand.

Scientists believe humans who eat certain parts of infected animals may contract variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a similar brain-wasting ailment. Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease has been blamed for 139 human deaths in the U.K. since 1990, according to that country's Department of Health.