Japan lifts pork imports ban from Austria

Japan's Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry said Friday (April 23) it has given the green light to a resumption of imports of Austrian pork and pork products.

The ministry suspended imports of Austrian pork from February after it found beef, a banned item, in Austrian sausages.

Japan has been banning beef imports from Austria since January 2001, following an outbreak in Europe of mad cow disease, formally called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.

The ministry said that the Austrian government has submitted a report on how sausages containing beef had been mis-shipped to Japan and its measures for improvement.

It decided to resume imports of Austrian pork after judging that Austria had taken sufficient preventive measures.