June 18, 2004

 

 

Japan No Plans Yet To Lift U.S. Beef Ban
 

Japan's farm ministry said on Friday there are no specific moves at present to consider resuming imports of beef from the United States.

 

Japan suspended the imports after the United States discovered its first case of mad cow disease in late December, halting trade that amounted to nearly $1.4 billion in 2003.

 

Business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said the Japanese government has begun to consider the possibility of lifting the ban on U.S. beef imports starting with young cattle.

 

Japanese Agriculture Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei told a news conference he had read the news reports, but current bilateral talks did not extend to a specific discussion of resuming trade.

 

"We are holding working-level talks ... where we are discussing technical issues, and it is not a place to discuss specific terms for the resumption of imports," Kamei said.

 

Japanese media said the government was considering allowing imports of young cattle. That is due to the views of a number of experts that young animals, such as those under 20 months old, are unlikely to carry the abnormal proteins that cause the disease.

 

Kamei said he was unaware of such discussion.

 

He reiterated Japan's stance that all cattle destined for Japan be tested for the brain-wasting disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), in line with domestic safety measures.

 

This is a major point of contention with the United States, which tests only some of its cattle with the aim of detecting the extent and prevalence of the disease.

 

The U.S. Agriculture Department said in April that it plans to test at least 200,000 cattle for an 18-month period starting in June, out of 35 million slaughtered.

 

Tokyo and Washington have started working-level talks to try to break the deadlock, with a second round of talks to be held in the United States on June 28-30.

 

A third meeting is scheduled in Tokyo on July 21-22, with the aim of resolving the deadlock by the summer.

 

A rare human form of BSE -- variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease which can result from eating contaminated animal products -- has been blamed for the deaths of some 130 people in Europe, although there have been no reports of humans catching it in Japan.