April 26, 2004

 

 

Japan, U.S. To Set Up Mad Cow Panel
 

Japan and the United States agreed on Saturday to convene a panel of experts to prepare a resolution of a four-month dispute over testing for mad cow disease in Tokyo. The disease has shut American beef out of its most lucrative export market.

 

The latest meeting debating the adequacy of U.S. testing standards remained in a deadlock. The two countries' basic positions have not changed, said a Foreign Ministry official briefing reporters on condition of anonymity.

 

But the countries agreed to try and narrow their differences by establishing a working group of experts by mid-May. It will meet at least once a month to create common ground on technical issues, including methods, surveillance and definitions used in diagnosis and testing procedures, the official said.

 

The experts will compile a report by the end of this summer aimed at helping the two partners resume trade, he said.

 

"The two sides will...make efforts so as to reach a final conclusion on the resumption of the import of both American and Japanese beef by summer," the governments said later in a joint statement.

 

A series of visiting U.S. delegations have failed to persuade Japan's government to lift a ban imposed on American beef imports, after a single case of mad cow disease was detected in Washington state in late December.

 

Japan has said it will not resume imports unless the United States requires all 35 million cattle it slaughters annually to be tested for mad cow disease. U.S. agriculture officials say there is no scientific reason to test every animal.

 

The U.S. trade delegation was led by U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary J.B. Penn.

 

Japan's small beef industry adopted a policy of testing every cow slaughtered after an outbreak of mad cow disease here in 2001. Under an expanded surveillance program targeting animals over 30 months old and others deemed most at risk, the United States plans to test at least 220,000 cattle by the end of 2005.

 

Japan has refused to accept a U.S. proposal for international mediation on the ban. The proposal called for both nations to present arguments before a panel from the World Organization for Animal Health.

 

The joint statement on Saturday stated the group may refer to the international organization for "third-party expertise", but details were not elaborated.

 

People who eat beef tainted by the aberrant protein that causes mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, can contract a rare but fatal variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

 

Japan was the most lucrative market for U.S. beef before the import ban, buying almost $1 billion worth in 2002.