April 6, 2004

 

 

Japan Not Ready To Lift US Beef Ban

 

Japanese authorities are not prepared to lift its 3-month-old mad-cow-related embargo on U.S. beef anytime soon but will continue discussions with Washington to find a solution, an official said Monday.

 

Mamoru Ishihara, Japan's vice minister of agriculture, said the two sides still differ over the best way to end the ban.

 

"There doesn't seem to be any prospects now for a lifting of the ban," Ishihara was quoted by a ministry spokesman as saying at a press conference.

 

Japan halted imports after a Holstein in Washington state was found in December to have mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Before the ban, Japan was the world's largest foreign buyer of U.S. beef, importing about $1 billion worth a year.

 

Tokyo says it won't allow U.S. beef back into the country until Washington starts testing every slaughtered cow - an estimated 35 million head of cattle - for the brain-wasting illness. Japan introduced blanket testing after finding its own domestic mad cow case in 2001.

 

U.S. officials say such blanket testing is a waste of resources.

 

Ishihara said Tokyo had been encouraged by recent reports that a U.S. meatpacking company wanted Washington's permission to privately conduct testing for mad cow disease on all animals processed at its slaughterhouse.

 

And he said Tokyo had expected U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman's letter, received last week, to address how Washington planned to respond to the company's request.

 

"But the letter didn't even touch on the issue," Ishihara was quoted as saying.

 

Veneman's letter proposed asking the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health to set international standards before April 30. The organization collects and distributes data on animal diseases from 166 member nations.

 

But Tokyo rejected the idea last week.

 

Ishihara said the two sides are continuing discussions.

 

"The United States wants to resolve this problem quickly. Our stance also remains unchanged: We want to find a solution soon," he added.