September 28, 2005

Japanese minister urges resumption of beef trade with US

Japanese farm minister Mineichi Iwanaga has urged the government to resume beef trade with the US soon, expressing concerns about possible US reprisals.

The US senate had recently voted to keep Japanese Kobe beef shipments out of the US, in retaliation against Japan's ban on American beef.

Iwanaga said it was important for both countries to continue efforts towards resuming beef trade.

While the US has been urging Japan to quickly resume American beef imports, the Japanese government said it still needed to follow evaluation procedures from the independent Food Safety Commission. The commission in turn said more time was needed to evaluate US safeguards against mad cow disease before a decision could be made.

An unofficial draft report prepared by the Food Safety Commission said US safeguards alone were not enough to ensure the safety of American beef. The report recommended restricting imports to meat from cattle proven to be younger than 21 months.

The commission said it would discuss the draft report at their next meeting soon and submit a final recommendation to the government later this year.

Meanwhile, some members of the commission have expressed concerns that it might be too difficult to monitor US beef imports, to ensure American producers have complied with required safety measures.