April 3, 2010

Beef trade talks to continue between Japan and US

Farm minister Hirotaka Akamatsu on Friday said Japan intends to continue talks with the US on the beef trade, even though restrictions on US beef imports were likely to remain.

Akamatsu said it would be ''hard'' to abolish the ban on imports of U.S. beef from cattle aged over 20 months, as demanded by Washington. US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is due to arrive in Japan next Monday for a five-day visit.

This week, Vilsack acknowledged the difficulty in convincing Japan to lift its controls on US beef imports, which were imposed out of fears about mad cow disease, but said he expects ''forward progress'' regarding the matter when he meets Akamatsu.

Japan and the US are at odds over Washington's insistence that Tokyo abolish its ban on imports of US beef from cattle aged over 20 months.

Tokyo suspended all beef imports from the US after the first US case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease, was found in 2003.

Japan, which had until then been the US cattle industry's biggest export market, later partially reopened the beef market with certain restrictions, including the age limit.

Earlier this month, two resolutions were presented calling on Japan to fully reopen its beef market to US beef imports.