October 25, 2004

Japan Eases US Beef Import Ban

Japan and US agreed Saturday to ease a 10-month-old ban on American beef exports to Japan. This move will reopen the US beef industry's biggest overseas market to at least some products.

The agreement, which awaits final approval from Tokyo, would also allow a resumption of Japanese beef exports to the United States, banned after the discovery of Japan's first case of mad cow disease in 2001.

The announcement from the US delegation came after three days of talks in Tokyo that focused on how strictly American producers should test their products for mad cow disease. Japan banned US beef imports in December 2003 after the first US case of the bovine illness was discovered.

The agreement would allow the import of beef products only from cows younger than 20 months.

J.B. Penn, the Agriculture Department's undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services, said that the exports could begin in a matter of weeks.