Japan delays again

[Bill]

BEEF NEWS
Japan delays beef decision yet again
by Pete Hisey on 10/25/2005 for Meatingplace.com

A Monday meeting of a government panel that was expected to produce a recommendation to reopen the Japanese market to U.S. beef instead produced no decision because some members could not attend and others brought up last-minute objections.

The panel had issued a preliminary opinion that beef products from the United States were low-risk, and it was assumed that a final opinion similar to the draft would be forwarded to the independent Food Safety Commission. However, two key panel members did not attend the meeting, and others had questions about two other diseases that may be related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Others questioned the U.S. ability to maintain the complex safeguard structure that the two nations have agreed upon, which includes strict procedures for removal of all specified risk materials and other procedures for guaranteeing that all beef shipped is from cattle under 21 months of age.

The new delay is almost certain to infuriate some U.S. legislators, who over the past two weeks have threatened trade sanctions unless the Japanese market — worth some $1.7 billion in very high-margin sales prior to the border closing in late 2003 — is reopened quickly.

Yasuhiro Yoshikawa, chairman of the investigating panel, also introduced a new element to the negotiations, warning that if precautions are not strictly followed, the border could be closed again instantly at any time.

President Bush is due in Tokyo on Nov. 15 for high-level meetings with Prime Minister Koizumi, and many had surmised that the market reopening would be announced then. However, the panel is not expected to meet again until early November, which would make such an agreement difficult.

Meanwhile, Thailand, which also banned American beef in December 2003, lifted the ban late last week, and Hong Kong health authorities said that its ban would probably be lifted in the near future.

 

[Sandhusker]

Weren't we told that, by taking Canadian beef and cattle, that we would show "leadership" and Japan would open to us? Maybe the time frame wasn't mentioned? :roll:

 

[Bill]

Weren't we told that, by taking Canadian beef and cattle, that we would show "leadership" and Japan would open to us? Maybe the time frame wasn't mentioned? :roll:

Maybe the US should get off its @$$ and get a mandatory ID program and BSE eradication program that matches Canada's.

Having said that we keep hearing how Japan needs US beef yet in 2003 they raised tariffs on it.

NEW JAPANESE TARIFFS ON U.S. BEEF IMPORTS MUST BE REMOVED
FOREIGN TRADE - JAPAN - NEWS
Tuesday, July 29, 2003

'Safeguard' Mechanism Not Designed for Current Conditions

Washington, D.C. (July 29, 2003) - After a year's worth of deliberations with Japanese officials, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) is extremely disappointed in Japan's decision to increase tariffs on U.S. chilled beef imports to 50 percent from 38.5 percent effective Friday, August 1, 2003.

This increase in tariffs comes from a 'safeguard measure,' which was originally put in place to protect Japanese beef producers from injury due to a sudden surge in imports. The safeguard is designed so that if current year, quarterly imports of fresh/chilled and/or frozen beef (separately) increase more than 17 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year, Japan's current 38.5 percent tariff on imported product may increase to 50 percent on all imported beef to protect the domestic industry.

"This is a misguided use of international trade safeguard measures," exclaims NCBA Chief Economist Gregg Doud. "Last year's supposed jump in imports is being compared to a time when a BSE outbreak in Japan destroyed consumer confidence in beef."

Consumer confidence in beef consumption collapsed after the September 10th 2001 discovery of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in Japan.

"Japanese beef imports have been slow to recover and are finally returning to normal levels." explains Doud. "This unforeseen circumstance could not have been anticipated when these safeguard measures were designed, and the U.S. had no control over the discovery of BSE in Japan. We're now being penalized for our investment in rebuilding Japan's beef demand."

NCBA has worked closely with USDA and industry sources to obtain funding so that the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) could aggressively pursue efforts to regain confidence among Japanese consumers about the safety and wholesomeness of all beef (domestic as well as imported). The U.S. beef industry and the U.S. government collectively invested nearly $9 million to restore demand in the Japanese beef market.

Japan historically represents the top U.S. export market for beef and beef variety meats. However, the U.S. exported only 332 thousand metric tons (down 35 percent) valued at $1.0 billion dollars (down 36 percent) of beef and beef variety meats to Japan in 2002.

The 17 percent jump in imports represents figures from April-June 2003, where total chilled beef imports were 72,747 tons, as compared to April-June 2002, at 52,757 tons. In 2002, the "mad-cow" disease scare lead to a sudden drop in consumption of all beef products. Immediately following the discovery of BSE in Japan, there was a 60 percent drop in retail sales of beef and beef product, and a 50 percent drop in beef consumption in restaurants/food service establishments.

"To impose these high tariffs will harm both U.S. beef producers as well as a wide range of Japanese consumers," says Doud. "The unnecessary increase in the price of beef to Japanese consumers will be of no net benefit to Japanese beef producers and will negate important progress in mutually beneficial trade between our nations."

On August 14, 2002, NCBA sent a letter urging the U.S. government to negotiate with Japan to gain a one-time waiver in the beef safeguard, or at a minimum to have them use a multiple year average of imports instead of last year's BSE-devastated market as the basis for comparison.

On March 6-7, 2003, NCBA Vice President of Government Affairs, Chandler Keys, traveled to Tokyo, Japan to participate in a press round table as part of a coalition of American, Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian industry groups. In addition, NCBA and USMEF staff met with the Vice-Minister for International Affairs of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries as well as Ambassador Howard Baker, U.S. Ambassador to Japan.

"Regardless of all of our discussions with Japan, they have still decided to implement this extremely high tariff," says Keys. "We are very disappointed with this decision, and believe this tariff needs to be reduced significantly during WTO negotiations."

NCBA strongly supports the U.S. proposal for market access at the WTO agricultural negotiations that would eventually eliminate Japan's safeguard mechanisms. NCBA will continue make efforts to seek resolution to this immediate trade obstruction.
###
Producer-directed and consumer-focused, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association is the trade association of America's cattle farmers and ranchers, and the marketing organization for the largest segment of the nation's food and fiber industry.

Where was the release from R-Calf denouncing this? Oh that's right they were busy making up ways to keep the Canadian border closed. :roll:

 

[STAFF]

Maybe the US should get off its not nice and get a mandatory ID program and BSE eradication program that matches Canada's. We agree

 

[PPRM]

Biggest obstacle to success is not listening to your customer..... How big of a hurry do they seem to be in given OUR proposal....


Heck, I can stay away from this forum months at a time and it is the same.........LOL


Are you listening???? Listen close I will say the same thing I have said before, but slowly............(ok, I know Mike hears this).........JAPAN IS NOT ASKING US TO DO ANYTHING THEY AREN'T ALREADY REQUIRING WITHIN THIER OWN COUNTRY.


The only current answer is to test all Beef bound for Japan.....Paid for by those selling it......It is either viable or not, let the market decide........Mandatory ID, Random Testing, and all the other programs have done nothing to open the border........Japan continues to ask for tested Beef, we never offer and nothing ever happens......They aren't in a hurry.......

Oh, and is it really unfair for them to ask the same from us that they expect within thier borders?????


PPRM

 

[Mike]

Well said Pat! It's nice to get a whiff of common sense now and then. :wink:

 

[Tam]

Biggest obstacle to success is not listening to your customer..... How big of a hurry do they seem to be in given OUR proposal....


Heck, I can stay away from this forum months at a time and it is the same.........LOL


Are you listening???? Listen close I will say the same thing I have said before, but slowly............(ok, I know Mike hears this).........JAPAN IS NOT ASKING US TO DO ANYTHING THEY AREN'T ALREADY REQUIRING WITHIN THIER OWN COUNTRY.

Maybe they aren't asking for 100% testing because they are trying to get out of it in their own country.

The only current answer is to test all Beef bound for Japan.....Paid for by those selling it......It is either viable or not, let the market decide........Mandatory ID, Random Testing, and all the other programs have done nothing to open the border........Japan continues to ask for tested Beef, we never offer and nothing ever happens......They aren't in a hurry.......

Oh, and is it really unfair for them to ask the same from us that they expect within thier borders?????

Just wondering When did the Government of Japan ask for tested beef? According to what we hear the restaurant industry asked for it but the Japanese government said no to them. Is it not true that the Government sets the import regulations not the industries? Do you have anything to prove the Government has asked? And how can you say Manditory ID did nothing to open the border? Isn't it true that US doesn't have Manditory ID?

 

[PPRM]

Tam,

I agree that Canada has an exquisite Animal ID program. How far did your Id Program get you in opening the Border with Japan????? I'm not married to any position, espcially one as unsuccessful as that has been in getting Japanese Borders open.

Creekstone says they had a market confirmed, I have no reason to disbelieve them. Private enterprise saw the ability to market and test at a profit. I can't believe a Republican Administration decided no, but what the heck, this Administration has disappointed me many times....

If the government opens the border and the restaurants refuse it, what have we accomplished. I don't save them, but there are reports of consumers protesting the US forcing Aisan countires to take Beef....Oen the bordrs and prove to me the customers are there.....

I bet the Japanese didn't believe there were as many cattle that would test positive as there have been. I left this side of the forum a few months back after I posted the thread, "Pull the Scab.'" I sat here and read and listened to both sides and the source they quoted. I put up with the Venom and making things personal long enough, though non of it was pointed at me. Just hard to read through. Pull The Scab was my final thots on this and they haven't changed since....There's ways to increase testing by paying for it through free market rewards, not government programs. Go back and review my thread, I don't wish to take the time to rehash it.


I have always thot horses were smarter than people. most horses will try something a few times, if it doesn't work they try something else..... I've seenpeople that try things that don't work for a lifetime, LOL,


PPRM

 

[Tam]

Tam,

I agree that Canada has an exquisite Animal ID program. How far did your Id Program get you in opening the Border with Japan????? I'm not married to any position, espcially one as unsuccessful as that has been in getting Japanese Borders open.

Creekstone says they had a market confirmed, I have no reason to disbelieve them. Private enterprise saw the ability to market and test at a profit. I can't believe a Republican Administration decided no, but what the heck, this Administration has disappointed me many times....

If the government opens the border and the restaurants refuse it, what have we accomplished. I don't save them, but there are reports of consumers protesting the US forcing Aisan countires to take Beef....Oen the bordrs and prove to me the customers are there.....

I bet the Japanese didn't believe there were as many cattle that would test positive as there have been. I left this side of the forum a few months back after I posted the thread, "Pull the Scab.'" I sat here and read and listened to both sides and the source they quoted. I put up with the Venom and making things personal long enough, though non of it was pointed at me. Just hard to read through. Pull The Scab was my final thots on this and they haven't changed since....There's ways to increase testing by paying for it through free market rewards, not government programs. Go back and review my thread, I don't wish to take the time to rehash it.


I have always thot horses were smarter than people. most horses will try something a few times, if it doesn't work they try something else..... I've seenpeople that try things that don't work for a lifetime, LOL,


PPRM

I'm glad to hear you think we have an exquisite Animal ID program but what we have in Canada may not be enough if the Japanese tie us to the US and what you don't have.

As far as Creekstone they may have had a agreement with some Japanese but from what we hear it wasn't the Japanese that make the import regulations.

What you said was "Japan continues to ask for tested beef" and I just want to know what Japanese you are talking about. As if it is not the Government it may not matter if the USDA agrees to testing. The USDA, like the Japanese restaurant industry, doesn't make Japanese import regulations.

 

[rkaiser]

Tam. Do you have a direct line with the Japanese Prime Minister? Or do you simply have an opinion on the issue?

Neither the USDA or the Canadian government has ever made an effort to create testing protocal with Japan because the mutinational packers don't want it.

That's my opinion Tam.

 

[Tam]

Tam. Do you have a direct line with the Japanese Prime Minister? Or do you simply have an opinion on the issue?

Neither the USDA or the Canadian government has ever made an effort to create testing protocal with Japan because the mutinational packers don't want it.

That's my opinion Tam.

Another sarcastic remark from a guy that is trying to sell his Ideas. :roll: And we all know about your opinions Randy so I will not bother to ask you for proof of you claims as I know I won't recieve any anyway. :wink: And As I won't get any proof neither will you. :lol2:

 

[rkaiser]

Hey Tam. When are you going to make a call into the President of the Canadian Beef Export Federation and tell him how stupid he is to support BSE testing for export marketing purposes. Tell him that you know the facts. Maybe you can practice up and tell him in Japanese. He speaks Japanese fluently you know.

 

[Tam]

Hey Tam. When are you going to make a call into the President of the Canadian Beef Export Federation and tell him how stupid he is to support BSE testing for export marketing purposes. Tell him that you know the facts. Maybe you can practice up and tell him in Japanese. He speaks Japanese fluently you know.

Randy grow up

 

[rkaiser]

Randy grow up

Never Tam-----Never

 

[Bill]

Most in Japan Oppose U.S. Beef Imports
UPDATED - Wednesday October 26, 2005 2:03am


TOKYO (AP) - Nearly 70 percent of Japanese are opposed to lifting a two-year ban on imports of U.S. beef, according to a newspaper poll published Wednesday as Japan continues to debate whether to resume imports.The survey by the national Asahi Shimbun found that 67 percent of respondents were against resuming imports of meat from young American cows, up from 63 percent in a similar poll taken in October 2004.

Tokyo and Washington agreed earlier this year to allow imports of meat from cows under 21 months old, but Japan's Food Safety Commission is still evaluating the safety of American beef. Mad cow has never been detected in a cow that young.

The Asahi poll found 21 percent of respondents said they would welcome a resumption of imports of U.S. beef, down from 26 percent in the previous poll.



The newspaper did not ask respondents why they opposed or welcomed U.S. beef imports.

It interviewed 1,998 people nationwide by telephone. The newspaper provided no margin of error.

On Monday, a Japanese government panel on mad cow disease (news) delayed a decision on whether to recommend easing the import ban, despite preparing a draft report concluding the risk from American beef is very low.

It was not immediately clear how much impact the poll would have on Japan's decision.

But the Food Safety Commission said that it is planning to seek public comments for four weeks once it reaches its conclusion on the resumption of imports, which officials say is a crucial step.

Tokyo imposed a ban on American beef in 2003 after one U.S. cow tested positive for the brain-wasting ailment. U.S. officials have called the ban excessive and some lawmakers in Washington have threatened to seek sanctions against Japan if it doesn't resume imports.

Before the ban, Japan was the most lucrative overseas market for American beef, importing more than $1.5 billion worth in 2003.

Japan has reported 20 cases of mad cow disease, but Japanese authorities test all beef for the disease before it is processed for human consumption.

Mad cow disease — bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE — affects cows that are fed with the remains of other cattle infected with the disease. Infected beef is thought to cause a fatal brain disorder in humans that has killed more than 150 people, mostly in Britain, since the 1990s.

 

[PPRM]

Bill,

Thanks for the post....In this forum it seems if you on't keep every insignificant article you get pasted hard....News articles that say, "Japan refuses to resume the import of Beef without 100% testing burned in my memory hard enough to not really worry bout saving them....I have to much going on to stay in her and do so........

Anyway, I have no chip on my shoulder....I have worked hard enough to develop my own marjets and get enough for my cattle that a lot of this doesn't worry me to much....Guess I don't have as much time to sit around and debate what everyone else needs to do to make my like better, I take care of it myself,

PPRM

 

[Mike]

Tam wrote:

Maybe they aren't asking for 100% testing because they are trying to get out of it in their own country.

Tam, in this very inarticulate statement of yours we must sit back and examine that there are seperate "THEY'S" in Japan.

1- You have the Japanese consumer who first demanded that all beef be tested because of cover-ups in BSE and in the meat industry(mis-labeling, etc.). Trust (or lack of) is what drove the Japanese Government to 100% testing. Sound familiar? Hint: England, Germany, USA, and the list goes on...............


2- Then you have the Japanese cattlemen, packing, and meat distributor consortium who have an almost "Mafia" type foothold within the country of Japan and the Government thereof. They are a "protectionist" group who doesn't want any imports of beef so as to keep the price of beef through the roof. I would imagine they are fighting the import of non-tested beef to Japan also.

3- Lastly, there is the Jap guvment that is trying to play both ends against the middle by succumbing to an "all-tested" program in the beef industry within the island of Japan, allowing beef from non-BSE countries, and in the final say are keeping the prices of KOBE beef up around the $100.00 per pound range.

The consumers are driving the fight against importing Canadian and USA non-tested beef and the "industry" is backing it wholeheartedly. The only "They" that is fighting for relaxing 100% testing is the government, and very reluctantly, I might add, just to satisfy the other two groups somewhat.

Make no mistake about it. The consumers and the "industry" in Japan want all beef to be tested if it is from a BSE country and the USDA should have called their bluff on it.

 

[Bill]

Tam. Do you have a direct line with the Japanese Prime Minister? Or do you simply have an opinion on the issue?

Neither the USDA or the Canadian government has ever made an effort to create testing protocal with Japan because the mutinational packers don't want it.

That's my opinion Tam.

That's actually much more closer to fact than opinion. CFIA is an entity accountable to no one. Then throw in the fear of testing from the larger packers and the complacency of CCA and it is little wonder CBEF is not being listened to. Who is better equipped to understand the conditions under which beef would move to foreign markets than the salesmen who deal with it day to day.