May 21, 2004

 

 

Japan, US Government Officials Optimistic On Resuming Beef Trade

 

Japanese and U.S. government officials expressed optimism Thursday that beef trade between the two countries will resume by the end of the summer.

 

Chikao Kawai, chief economy official at the Japanese embassy here told a gathering of U.S. and Japanese agriculture officials he believes the two countries can reach an agreement over the safety of U.S. beef amicably and quickly.

 

"We need U.S. beef," Kawai said during a reception held by the embassy to celebrate U.S. and Japanese agriculture ties.

 

Japan was the largest market for U.S. beef until the U.S. discovered a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, in December. Japan, along with other major importers banned U.S. beef.

 

The U.S. exported 352,448 metric tons of beef to Japan in 2003, valued around $1.3 billion, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation.

 

Japan and the U.S. held the first of three bilateral BSE meetings this week in Tokyo. The next in the series is scheduled to take place in Washington D.C. in late June, a Japanese embassy official said Thursday.

 

USDA Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agriculture Services J.B. Penn, who attended the embassy event, said he is confident an agreement would be reached, resulting in U.S. exporting beef again to Japan by the end of summer.

 

Masahito Enomoto, agriculture, forestry and fisheries counselor for the Japanese embassy, praised the U.S. and Japan's efforts toward restarting trade, but stressed a lot of difficult negotiating needs to be done before that happens.

 

Japan has repeatedly insisted that the U.S. test all cattle slaughtered for beef export, but the USDA remains adamant in its refusal to agree to that.

 

Instead, the USDA is preparing to launch an expanded BSE testing program on June 1. The USDA plans to test as many as 268,000 cattle during a one-time 18-month period to get a "snapshot" of BSE prevalence in the U.S.

 

Kawai stressed that beyond the negotiations to resume beef trade, efforts need to be made to "convince Japanese consumers that U.S. beef is safe."