December 7, 2005

Japan, US meet over beef import resumption

USDA officials are meeting with visiting Japanese government officials and politicians Tuesday to prepare for the resumption of US beef exports to Japan.

The visiting Japanese representatives are meeting at USDA headquarters with USDA officials in anticipation of Japan's lifting of its two-year ban on US beef, said US and Japanese officials who asked not to be named.

Japan's Food Safety Commission (FSC), the government body considering the safety of US beef, is now meeting weekly on Thursdays and a final decision from the commission is expected soon, one Japanese government official said Tuesday.

If FSC approves US beef safe for import, as one of its subgroups--the Prion Committee--has already done, it will then be up to Japan's top health and agriculture officials to ratify the decision.

Before it banned US beef in December 2003, Japan was the largest beef export market for the US, buying about US$1.4 billion of beef a year.

Japan banned US beef immediately after the US announced the discovery of its first case of mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Since then, the USDA has announced a second case of the neurological disease that can be passed onto humans through consumption of infected bovine tissue.

One of the Japanese officials visiting USDA headquarters Tuesday said FSC is expected to rule on US beef "very soon" and as early as Thursday.

Other Japanese delegations to the US are also expected by USDA officials to discuss "technical" issues such as USDA's beef export verification programme to ensure that US beef will meet Japanese safety demands, a USDA official said Tuesday on condition of anonymity.

US and Japanese government officials said planning has already begun for possible visit by Japanese food safety specialists to US meat packing plants to verify US BSE safety procedures.