Japan Endorsed Private Testing

[Mike]

Japan Demands `Appropriate' Proposals From U.S. on Beef Imports
BeefUSA
Bloomberg

Japan's Agriculture Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei sent a letter Friday to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman demanding the U.S. make ``appropriate'' proposals if it wants Japan to restart imports of U.S. beef.

The letter was in response to a proposal by Veneman last week, suggesting the two countries and the World Organization for Animal Health confer on Japan's demand that the U.S. test all cattle slaughtered for export to Japan for BSE.

``It's a pity that such a proposal doesn't give sufficient consideration to the positions of the U.S. and Japan,'' Kamei said in the letter. A Japanese version of the letter was given to Bloomberg by the Agriculture Ministry.

Kamei also said the ``rules'' of the World Organization for Animal Health are under review, making it difficult for Japan to accept the organization's view at this time.

Japan was the biggest importer of U.S. beef, buying $1.5 billion of a total $3.8 billion worth of the meat exported every year. The continued ban on imports from the U.S. may start to hurt beef farmers and meat packers, causing companies such as Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC to volunteer to test all meat bound for Japan.

Separately from the letter, Japan's Agriculture Ministry said it would welcome such a proposal if it came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. government first needs to recognize private testing, the ministry said.

Scientists believe humans who eat certain parts of animals infected with mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, may contract variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a similar brain-wasting ailment that has been blamed for 139 human deaths in the U.K. since 1990.


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[Sandhusker]

Where do you keep coming up with this good stuff, Mike? However, I have to question the accuracy of the article as SH has told us repeatedly that Japan never asked for testing, there was no evidence the Japanese Government would accept tested beef, etc.....

Especially fishy is the statement, "The U.S. government first needs to recognize private testing, the ministry said" This simply can't be true, as we have been told many times by Mr. Credibilty himself, "I have never been refuted". :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Mike]

Japan considers private BSE tests

TOKYO (DTN)--In what may be hoof up toward lifting Japan's total ban on U.S. beef, a senior Japanese farm official said the ban would likely be removed if U.S. exporters will test all cattle for export for mad cow disease

That's still a big if.

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) appears to be encouraging publicly what DTN has reported as "strictly confidential" private-level talks between Japanese and U.S. beef interests to work out a testing scheme in which private companies would clear the way for exports.

At a press conference, MAFF Vice Minister Mamoru Ishihara said Japan would accept privately tested beef as long as USDA goes along with it.

"We will welcome private-sector testing with the U.S. government's firm involvement," he said.

Without going into specifics, Ishihara said Japanese "consumer demand for the safety of food" might be satisfied if such blanket testing is endorsed the U.S. government. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been cool to such a program of testing en masse as unscientific. It could also lead to different standards in assuring the uniform safety of beef.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman said March 17 she hopes Japan and other U.S. beef importers will consider lifting their import bans following this week's announcement of cow test reinforcements.

The United States now plans to increase the number of cows tested for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Veneman said in a news teleconference.

"We are hopeful that this will create some interest on the part of some of our trading partners to look at reopening markets," she said.

But Veneman repeated her view that Japan's request to test all cows to BSE testing "is not scientifically based." But the U.S. "will continue to pursue this market (Japan) very aggressively because it is our No. 1 market."

The notion of endorsing testing for export on the U.S. side and among beef-consuming industries in Japan has been floated in various forms. A number of smaller U.S. beef companies have suggested they will be prepared test cows in their slaughterhouses. There again, Japan would insist on USDA supervision of such operations.

Last summer, the USDA agreed to establish a system of export verification that U.S. beef exported to Japan contained no Canadian beef, which was banned in Japan and the U.S. after a first BSE cow case was found in Alberta Province.

Date: 4/8/04