September 14, 2007

US, Japan still at odds over increasing beef trade

Japan and the US are still at odds over just how much Japan should pull back restrictions on US beef, US Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Thursday (September 13).

All importing countries should lift restrictions on US beef because the US has received a favourable risk status from the World Organization for Animal Health for the way the US has dealt with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, Johanns said.

Japan continues to resist, though, proposing instead a partial measure that would allow in US beef from only cattle under 30 months old. That would increase the flow of US beef exports, but still restrict trade.

Japan banned US beef in December 2003 after the first case of BSE was found here. In July 2006, Japan partially re-opened its market to imports, allowing in only beef from cattle under 21 months old at slaughter.

The proposed move to allow in more beef from a wider selection of cattle under 30 months old doesn't go far enough, Johanns said.

The World Organization for Animal Health, known widely by the French acronym OIE, granted its favourable "controlled risk" status to the US in May. USDA officials have since demanded that importing countries accept US beef produced from cattle of any age.

"We went through a lot of work to get OIE classification," Johanns said. "That needs to mean something. It should mean something."

Officials from both countries met in Tokyo in August to address Japanese concerns about US policy to prevent the spread of BSE here and keep the disease out of the human food supply.

Once the largest foreign importer of US beef, Japan bought about US$1.4 billion of beef in 2003 before BSE was discovered in the US.