September 10, 2007

 

Japan-US beef trade talks fail over farm ministry scandal

 

 

Talks between Japan and the United States on easier Japanese import terms for US beef have been fogged up by scandal-tainted heads of Japan's farm ministry since this August.

 

Pressured by Washington to lift restrictions on US beef imports, Tokyo had earlier relented to accept meat from cattle aged 30 months or younger by the end of the year. This call was prompted by a decision by the World Organization for the Animal Health to allow US cattle to export beef regardless of age.

 

Japan currently limits US beef imports to meat coming from cattle aged 20 months or younger on mad cow disease fears or scientifically known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

 

Since discussions on beef trade began in June, the Japanese side has earlier affirmed that there is now less of a chance that US cattle are afflicted with the disease. This statement has expected to relax import regulations by the end of the year at the earliest. The decision has also pushed 

 

Since August, however, Japan's farm ministry has been filled with controversies, with its leaders stepping down one after another. This has been making it difficult for Japan and the United States to hold a ministerial meeting on the issue of US beef imports.

 

On the other hand, it is uncertain whether the Japanese Food Safety Commission, charged with making policy recommendations to the government, will reach its conclusion regarding American beef this year.

 

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry has been battered by a series of scandals, and this is making it difficult for the ministry to make important policy decisions on the beef issue and the Doha Round of global trade liberalization talks.

 

Norihiko Akagi, who became farm minister in June after the suicide of his predecessor, Toshikatsu Matsuoka on a political funds scandal, was sacked by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe two months later as he was involved in a separate financial scandal.

 

Only a week after taking the post of farm minister, Takehiko Endo was forced to step down Monday as a farmers' association he once headed had received ministry subsidies through questionable means.

 

Following Endo's resignation, Abe immediately picked former Environment Minister Masatoshi Wakabayashi as Endo's successor.

 

But the new farm minister has come under fire, too, as a chief of an organization that receives subsidies from the farm ministry headed a political group for Wakabayashi.

 

Furthermore, vice farm minister Yoshio Kobayashi resigned from his post Friday. The top bureaucrat at the ministry had been criticized for not tackling the misuse of farm subsidies by the association once headed by Endo.