Japan in talks on lifting US beef ban

Japanese and US officials today focused on how stringently producers should test their cattle for mad cow disease in talks aimed at lifting Japan’s 10-month-old ban on American beef imports.

The discussions come as Japan’s top food safety commission began reviewing a proposal to relax the government’s testing requirements for the fatal bovine illness for younger cows as urged by the United States.

Japan banned all US beef imports following the first case of mad cow disease in the United States in December 2003. Tokyo has demanded that Washington test all US-bred cows for the illness as a condition for resuming trade, but US officials have said such testing would be costly and ineffective.

Japanese officials are being led by the director general of the Foreign Ministry’s economic affairs bureau, Kenichiro Sasae, and JB Penn, the Agriculture Department’s under-secretary for farm and foreign agricultural services, is leading the US delegation.

The officials are believed to be discussing a Japanese plan, still awaiting final approval, to exempt cows younger than 20 months from testing.

Yesterday, the first of two days of meetings, the two sides asserted respective views in heated talks but could not reach any agreement, Agriculture Ministry official Hiroaki Ogura said. He refused to elaborate.

The officials last met in April, but scientific teams from both sides have been meeting regularly and visiting slaughterhouses and testing facilities in both countries.

Japan’s agriculture and health ministries last week submitted the plan for cows younger than 20 months to be exempt from testing to the government’s Food and Safety Commission, which met yesterday to discuss it.

If approved, the plan could allow Japan to ease the ban and start importing young cows from the United States.

Generally, a commission approval takes about two months, Ogura said.

Tokyo has tested every domestically slaughtered cow entering the market since 2001, following the first discovery in Japan of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and banned the use of meat-and-bone meal made from ruminant animal parts.

However, experts say infections among young cows are extremely rare and that testing methods for them aren’t reliable.

Last week, Japan confirmed its 14th case of mad cow disease. All of the infected animals found in Japan have been older than 20 months.