Betcha haven't heard yet! Big news!

[Mike]

Associated Press
Update 1: U.S. Wants Japan to Resume Beef Imports
06.01.2005, 03:46 PM

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Portman asked Japan on Wednesday to soon lift its ban on beef imports from America, according to a Japanese news report.

Portman made the request in a meeting with Japan's trade minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, Kyodo news agency said, quoting unidentified Japanese officials at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum trade meeting on the South Korean island of Jeju.

Nakagawa didn't comment on the request during the meeting, the officials said.

The United States has stepped up pressure on Japan to end its 17-month-old ban on American beef imports, with some U.S. officials threatening sanctions unless the ban ends.

Japan was the United States' most lucrative overseas beef market before the ban started in December 2003, days after the United States discovered its first case of mad cow disease.

Japan's Food Safety Commission has been asked to study whether it would be safe to resume imports, but no time frame has been given for a decision.

Mad cow disease is also called bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE. Eating infected beef is believed to cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a fatal brain disorder that has killed more than 150 people, mostly in Britain in the 1990s.

Japanese consumer groups have demanded that the government keep out U.S. beef.

 

[alabama]

"Japanese consumer groups have demanded that the government keep out U.S. beef"

I wonder if our beef check off could get an advertising campaign going on in Japan to change consumer opinion? We want the Japs to demand that the government let US beef in. Once again, we need to remember in marketing that it is consumer opinion that rules the day and not always sound science.

 

[Mike]

"Japanese consumer groups have demanded that the government keep out U.S. beef"

I wonder if our beef check off could get an advertising campaign going on in Japan to change consumer opinion? We want the Japs to demand that the government let US beef in. Once again, we need to remember in marketing that it is consumer opinion that rules the day and not always sound science.

All we have to do is test and they'll take it now! Without testing the Japs are skeptical that we are covering up BSE. When we get our foot in the door and then start a campaign.

 

[alabama]

We should do both. Test and campaign.

 

[agman]

"Japanese consumer groups have demanded that the government keep out U.S. beef"

I wonder if our beef check off could get an advertising campaign going on in Japan to change consumer opinion? We want the Japs to demand that the government let US beef in. Once again, we need to remember in marketing that it is consumer opinion that rules the day and not always sound science.

All we have to do is test and they'll take it now! Without testing the Japs are skeptical that we are covering up BSE. When we get our foot in the door and then start a campaign.

Why test for something the tests could not reveal anyway? While your lingo sounds good the comment is absent logic. If we cave in this time what do we do the next time?

 

[Mike]

"Japanese consumer groups have demanded that the government keep out U.S. beef"

I wonder if our beef check off could get an advertising campaign going on in Japan to change consumer opinion? We want the Japs to demand that the government let US beef in. Once again, we need to remember in marketing that it is consumer opinion that rules the day and not always sound science.

All we have to do is test and they'll take it now! Without testing the Japs are skeptical that we are covering up BSE. When we get our foot in the door and then start a campaign.

Why test for something the tests could not reveal anyway? While your lingo sounds good the comment is absent logic. If we cave in this time what do we do the next time?

Heck, we been caving for 17 months! Why not a few more?

 

[RobertMac]

Why not label it "USA BEEF" and let the Japanese consumer decide????
Same with Canadian beef in the USA.

 

[Sandhusker]

Agman, "Why test for something the tests could not reveal anyway? "

Why ask why? Does it really matter? The Japanese will take our beef if we test, simple as that. We don't have to find anything - it makes them feel good. Are you writing a science paper or selling beef?

Why do some people who have lived on $15,000 or less all their lives keep $50,000 in a checking account? It makes them feel good and it's their business.

 

[Murgen]

I wonder if our beef check off could get an advertising campaign going on in Japan to change consumer opinion? We want the Japs to demand that the government let US beef in. Once again, we need to remember in marketing that it is consumer opinion that rules the day and not always sound science

I'm still wondering why Japan is so important to the US, you're selling everything you can produce at record prices. maybe one of the R-calf members on this site can explain it to me.

 

[Mike]

I wonder if our beef check off could get an advertising campaign going on in Japan to change consumer opinion? We want the Japs to demand that the government let US beef in. Once again, we need to remember in marketing that it is consumer opinion that rules the day and not always sound science

I'm still wondering why Japan is so important to the US, you're selling everything you can produce at record prices. maybe one of the R-calf members on this site can explain it to me.

Murgen, I'm not an R-Calf member but we all know the border will open one day.

 

[whiteface]

Which day???? I'm guessing not any time soon. Enjoy the feast US! Have a good day and thanks for reading from Canada!

 

[Tam]

I wonder if our beef check off could get an advertising campaign going on in Japan to change consumer opinion? We want the Japs to demand that the government let US beef in. Once again, we need to remember in marketing that it is consumer opinion that rules the day and not always sound science

I'm still wondering why Japan is so important to the US, you're selling everything you can produce at record prices. maybe one of the R-calf members on this site can explain it to me.

Murgen, I'm not an R-Calf member but we all know the border will open one day.

That does not answer the question why is it so important, you are selling everything now and if Japan was to open you would not have the beef to export to them unless you plan on shorting your own domestic customers that have stuck by you in your time of need just so you can beneifit from the higher priced Japanese market. You are banning Canada and because it is in the court system no one really knows if that ban will lift if the Japanese export market was to open do we. You are also banning parts of Mexico now so where will the beef come from to supply Japan and the rest of the Asian markets if they open? Will the R-CALF argued HEALTH issues surrounding Canadian beef just disappear if the Japanese exports open and you NEED Canadian cattle to fill your orders? Looks to me as if that is what is being said right now. R-CALF is fighting in court that our beef repesents a genuine risk of death to US consumer but they put a prequistite to the border being openned on the Japanese border being open. Where will the supposed health risk disappear to if the Japanese export market opens? IF this is a true health risk that risk will still be there when that Japanese export market opens but if R-CALF is willing to take our beef AFTER the Japanese open up, this has never been about a health issue. This court case will be proven to be the fraud we all know R-CALF is carrying on just to DELAY the border being openned until US exports are open, in hopes to keep cattle at record high prices. And I hope that when Japan opens and R-CALF flip flops and agrees to import Canadian cattle to supply Japan like we all know they are going to that Judge Cebull has the brass to charge them all with purjury as they stood in his court and lied to his face about the HEALTH risk of Canadian beef.

 

[Sandhusker]

Tam, "R-CALF is fighting in court that our beef repesents a genuine risk of death to US consumer but they put a prequistite to the border being openned on the Japanese border being open."

Tam, I've pointed this out before - you are wrong. NCBA is the outfit who had as one of their 11 points our export markets be reopened before we reopen to Canada.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm still wondering why Japan is so important to the US, you're selling everything you can produce at record prices. maybe one of the R-calf members on this site can explain it to me.

Murgen, I'm not an R-Calf member but we all know the border will open one day.

That does not answer the question why is it so important, you are selling everything now and if Japan was to open you would not have the beef to export to them unless you plan on shorting your own domestic customers that have stuck by you in your time of need just so you can beneifit from the higher priced Japanese market. You are banning Canada and because it is in the court system no one really knows if that ban will lift if the Japanese export market was to open do we. You are also banning parts of Mexico now so where will the beef come from to supply Japan and the rest of the Asian markets if they open? Will the R-CALF argued HEALTH issues surrounding Canadian beef just disappear if the Japanese exports open and you NEED Canadian cattle to fill your orders? Looks to me as if that is what is being said right now. R-CALF is fighting in court that our beef repesents a genuine risk of death to US consumer but they put a prequistite to the border being openned on the Japanese border being open. Where will the supposed health risk disappear to if the Japanese export market opens? IF this is a true health risk that risk will still be there when that Japanese export market opens but if R-CALF is willing to take our beef AFTER the Japanese open up, this has never been about a health issue. This court case will be proven to be the fraud we all know R-CALF is carrying on just to DELAY the border being openned until US exports are open, in hopes to keep cattle at record high prices. And I hope that when Japan opens and R-CALF flip flops and agrees to import Canadian cattle to supply Japan like we all know they are going to that Judge Cebull has the brass to charge them all with purjury as they stood in his court and lied to his face about the HEALTH risk of Canadian beef.

Tam- USDA even admitted in their own memorandum that opening the border or taking Canadian beef increases the possibility of higher-risk product:

"Cons: 1) would raise the concern of certain consumer groups that our import permit policies are too lenient; 2) is a significant change in policy without opportunity for public comment; 3) increases the possibility that higher-risk product – mechanically separated product or product from animals greater than 30 months of age – may be imported into the United States due to possibilities of a breakdown in the segregation process in the facility or of mislabeling. "

Don't you think that these foreign countries are aware of the possible higher risk Canadian beef coming into the US?-And the possibility of a segregation breakdown?-Could this be a holdup to getting our export markets open? Why did Taiwan and Egypt demand beef from US verified cattle only? Why has USDA set up a completely new program (BEV) to try to meet these export markets that are requiring US Verified only beef?

Are you sure the Japanese haven't been demanding more proof of the US's ability to segregate out Canadian beef as a hold up to opening the border? As MRJ said- their is a lot that goes on behind closed doors that we hear nothing about....At one time one of the major concerns of the Japanese was that we could guarantee Canadian beef would not get mixed in........

We need to get all the export markets assured of our ability to give them a safe product before we begin taking in product from a higher risk country....

 

[Mike]

Tam, It was the NCBA directive that demanded the Canadian border open only after Japan and Korea lift their bans.

I think what has happened is the U.S. Beef Industry has had it's ego bruised. We have always ruled the world of beef and now that Japan has locked us out we can't stand it. We are pounding on the door, threatening sanctions, etc.
We don't really have any beef to sell them we just can't stand to get the cold shoulder.



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