July 14, 2005
No signs of movement in Japan beef ban
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By Jeff Zeleny
Chicago Tribune
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday she could offer few words of optimism for U.S. cattle producers or deliver a reasonable prediction of when Japan would lift its nearly 2-year-old ban on American beef.
While Rice said she "registered this concern yet again" during meetings with Japanese officials this week in Tokyo, she returned to the United States without any fresh answers to whether progress is being made in the trade dispute that is costing the beef industry $1.7 billion in annual exports.
Japan, which once was the largest foreign market for U.S. beef, placed a prohibition on all beef imports in December 2003 after a case of mad cow disease turned up in the United States. The Japanese government ordered a review of food-safety procedures, which has yet to be completed by an independent food safety commission in Tokyo.
"I had an opportunity to say to the Japanese government that this is something that we hope is going to be resolved very soon," Rice told reporters aboard her plane en route from Seoul, South Korea, to a refueling stop in Alaska. "The Japanese have told us that they are in the midst of a process with experts. I think they recognize that it is important that this be done as quickly as possible."
When asked if beef producers should be optimistic about a resolution, she demurred: "I can't speak to the question about optimism."
The ban on American beef imports is one of the few contentious issues in an otherwise friendly relationship between the United States and Japan.
Rice's stop in Japan, part of her four-nation, five-day dash through Asia, was dominated by developments in the North Korean nuclear disarmament talks. Rice and Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura only touched briefly upon the beef trade dispute at a joint press conference Tuesday.
"It is important that we reach as early a resolution as possible," Machimura said. In reply, Rice thanked her Japan counterpart "for their efforts to resolve this issue as quickly as possible."
Neither leader, however, elaborated on the merits of the impasse.
President Bush has repeatedly pressed Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to lift the ban. In the days leading up to the presidential election last fall, the leaders announced a tentative agreement had been reached and the Bush administration predicted that beef exporting would begin "in a matter of weeks."
At the time, some Japanese analysts criticized the move as a political favor from Koizumi to Bush designed to curry favor with voters in rural political swing states that were key to the president's re-election.
Both countries tentatively agreed to exclude cows 20 months or older from the ban, a limit reached because it is the youngest age that a cow has been diagnosed with the contagious brain wasting disease. But determining the age of imported beef has proven complicated, because few slaughterhouses keep birth records.
A Japanese food safety commission that is studying the agreement is nearly a year overdue approving the decision.
Koizumi also has said that he could not control when beef imports would be allowed because the decision is in the hands of the independent commission. Japanese consumer groups have warned him to not apply pressure to avoid the appearance that he is putting the desires of his American political ally over the health of his people.
As Rice flew back to the United States on Wednesday, she was asked about the beef trade disagreement, but sidestepped the question, saying: "I was glad to have the update. I still think the issue has to be resolved and resolved quickly."
A few minutes after she finished speaking and returned to her private cabin, a steak dinner was served on the plane.
