April 9, 2007
Japan halts imports from US meat plant
Japan ordered imports halted from a major US meat plant Friday (Apr 6) after a beef shipment arrived without proper papers, the third American meatpacker that's had some exports to Japan stopped for technical violations.
Four boxes of frozen beef tongue in a shipment of 250 boxes, totalling about 2 tonnes, which arrived in Kobe, central Japan, from Cargill Meat Solutions in Dodge City, Kansas, did not have the required papers from the US government, the agriculture ministry said in a statement.
Japan, a nation that is extremely nervous about food safety, especially imported meat, banned American beef imports in December 2003 after the first case of mad cow disease in the US.
The ban was eased once in December 2005, but tightened again the following month after prohibited spinal bones were found in a veal shipment. Tokyo eased the restrictions again in July last year, but allows only meat from cows aged 20 months or younger.
Beef is growing into a bilateral trade issue. US President George W. Bush recently urged Japan to reopen its markets fully to US beef, removing the 20-month-old or younger requirement.
Last month, Japan suspended beef imports from California meatpacker Jobbers Meat Packing Co after finding packages of beef sausage in a shipment in violation of a regulation imposed over mad cow concerns, the government said Friday.
Japan bans the import of US products such as sausage that contain processed beef under restrictions because of what Japan says are risks of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
In February, Japan stopped beef imports from a Nebraska processing plant operated by Tyson Foods after finding boxes of beef, which had not been verified as from cattle 20 months old or younger, as required by Japan.
Japan limits imports to beef that has been through stringent checks at selected US meat processing plants, but still imports American beef from about 30 processing plants that haven't had any problems.
