February 11, 2005

Japan lifts ban on import of US beef

Japan has decided to lift its ban on the import of beef from the United States of America, imposed 14 months ago when a case of mad cow disease or BSE was discovered in the US in December 2003. 

The Japanese government has requested that US beef exporters take extra care in its Japanese export consignments of beef by ensuring that they are not BSE-infected meat.

Tokyo has so far presented Washington with a list of measures it wants met in order to accurately verify that the exported beef is free BSE-free.

US beef producers have widely applauded the Japanese government's move to reinstall bilateral beef trade as

Japan is the largest importer of US beef at an annual value of US$2 billion.

This decision will clear the way for imports of US grade A40 beef, which comes primarily from cattle aged 12 to 17 months old.

Japan had earlier agreed tentatively to resuming imports of beef products from US cows at the given age range after a panel finding that tests on animals below 20 months could be eliminated without raising the risk of infecting consumers with the variant Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The imposition of this ban had earlier strained the trade relations between the two countries, but the prospect of its normalisation now appears to be imminent.