U.S.-Japan talks end without timeline for reopening of Japan's market
KTIC 840 Rural Radio
May 19, 2006
TOKYO (AP) _ Japan has accepted the anti-mad cow disease safeguards in place at U.S. meatpacking plants, but still refuses to set a timetable for reopening its lucrative market to American beef, U.S. and Japanese officials said Friday.
The two sides negotiated in Tokyo this week with the final session on Friday morning to lay out a framework for the resumption of U.S. beef imports into Japan, which banned the meat in January after a violation of its import rules.
Chuck Lambert, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official and lead American negotiator, said the U.S. is pushing to resume beef exports to Japan by the end of June, but that the Japanese government was not ready to go along with that.
``We have not reached a final agreement on the conditions for resumption of trade,'' Lambert told reporters in Tokyo. ``We have a pathway, the government of Japan will sort out its thoughts.''
During the talks, which started on Wednesday, Japan approved the audit report on compliance checks carried out at the 35 meatpacking plants that have applied to export to Japan. Lambert also said that the U.S. showed all the plants were in compliance with Japanese import rules.
The Japanese side still wants to conduct its own audits in the U.S. and continue public sessions with consumers to reassure them of the safety of beef imports.
Japanese media reports have said that Tokyo wants to officially decide on lifting the ban on U.S. beef imports by the time Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visits the United States in June.
But a Japanese government spokesman said Wednesday that the decision would be based on whether food safety had been assured, rather than political considerations.
Tokyo has said that before starting talks on resuming imports, it wanted first to review the survey results and get answers to questions about the plants seeking to export to Japan.
Lambert, the department's acting undersecretary for marketing and regulatory program, said the U.S. had done its part to assure Tokyo and it was now up to Japan to move to reopen its market.
``Our position is that we need to resume trade as soon as possible and ... to have that happen by the end of June,'' he said.
``The Japanese government has indicated that that would be very tough. However, we have a saying in the U.S.: When there's a will, there's a way,'' he added.
The U.S. also agreed to allow Japanese officials to accompany American inspectors on unannounced spot checks of U.S. beef plants to ensure compliance in the future.
Japan initially banned imports of U.S. beef in December 2003 after the first discovery of mad cow disease in the United States. The ban was eased in December 2005 to allow the import of certain types of meat from cows 20 months old or younger.
But in January, Japanese customs officials found spine bones _ which Tokyo considers a risk for the disease _ in a shipment of American veal, and the market was closed again.
Since then, the U.S. conducted an investigation into the faulty shipment and submitted a report to Japanese authorities. Tokyo, however, had additional questions it wanted answered before reopening the market.
Japan was once the most lucrative overseas market for U.S. beef, buying some US$1.4 billion (euro1.09 billion) of it in 2003.
kticam.com
Japan OKs U.S. beef report, trade restart decision likely in June
TOKYO, May 19, 2006
KYODO NEWS
Japan approved recent safety-inspection outcomes at U.S. meatpacking plants at a three-day bilateral meeting ended Friday, a decision possibly facilitating a decision by Tokyo as early as June to lift its ban on U.S. beef.
Japan gave its basic approval to a U.S. safety report on the 35 meatpacking facilities certified to export beef to Japan, Japanese and U.S. officials said.
''The government of Japan has accepted the report...We feel we have done our part after the Jan. 20 incident,'' Acting Agriculture Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Chuck Lambert said.
He was referring to the day a banned cow part was found in a quantity of imported U.S. beef, leading Japan to reinstate the ban it had lifted the previous month.
Lambert, who headed the U.S. delegation, and the Japanese officials said in separate press briefings that the two countries have reached no final agreement on conditions for resuming beef trade.
But Lambert said that the United States will accept inspections by Japanese officials and that he hoped the 35 plants will be ready to ship beef by the end of June, after the checks.
The two sides reached no agreement on the timeline of measures to lift the Japanese import ban on U.S. beef and Tokyo indicated that it would be ''very tough'' to complete all the procedures by the end of June, Lambert said.
Meanwhile, Japanese government sources said the country is expected to decide as early as June to reopen its market to U.S. beef, after the government holds risk communication sessions to hear consumer opinion on resuming the beef trade.
The actual restart of the beef trade will come only if Japan finds no problems at the 35 facilities for Japan-bound exports, the officials said. The government sources said the trade can be resumed around July.
If the government officially decides to lift the import ban on U.S. beef in June, it would coincide with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's planned visit to the United States late in the month.
Farm minister Shoichi Nakagawa said Friday that the governmental process for the resumption of the beef trade and Koizumi's U.S. visit for talks with President George W. Bush are unrelated, saying they are ''in completely different dimensions.'' In Japan, media reports have linked the two.
The U.S. agriculture official said Washington is confident about Japan shortly reopening its market to U.S. beef. He indicated he expected that the suspension of shipments from all the 35 plants will be lifted at the same time.
''We are optimistic that we will persevere in the end and we will have our products in front of Japanese consumers in a relatively short foreseeable future,'' Lambert said.
The report on the audits conducted at the U.S. facilities between April 24 and May 4 concluded that although cases of noncompliance with Japanese requirements were identified, they ''did not affect the acceptability or usability of the product.''
''All establishments were effectively removing designated excluded materials and would have been able to meet the specific product requirements for the export verification program for Japan,'' it said.
Both U.S. and Japanese officials noted the recent auditing has found minor procedural problems that U.S. meatpackers need to tackle. Lambert said those points will be dealt with by the end of May.
The two sides also talked about the possibility of allowing Japanese officials to accompany U.S. inspection teams at those facilities once the beef trade resumes. Lambert said Washington has agreed to receive the inspectors.
During previous public hearings the government held in April, many Japanese consumers expressed concern about the safety of U.S. beef. Lambert said the United States will strengthen consumer outreach programs after the restart of trade, with such tools as videos and leaflets to try to regain their confidence.
Asked what will happen if another ineligible export case occurs after the trade is resumed, Lambert said the United States hopes that only shipments from the facilities concerned will be suspended. He said Japan's reinstating a total ban on U.S. beef imports early this year was an ''extreme overreaction.''
The Japanese officials said they have yet to reach an accord with the United States on responses to future violations.
The two countries also discussed recent U.S. violations of bilaterally agreed beef export requirements with Hong Kong and Taiwan during the Tokyo talks, the officials said. Lambert said those export cases of products containing bones did not concern food safety, as the animal parts were not risk materials.
Japan ended a two-year-old import ban on U.S. beef in December but reinstated it Jan. 20 after a backbone was discovered in a veal shipment at Narita airport.
The spinal column is a specified risk material prohibited under the bilaterally agreed export requirements, as it is believed to carry a risk of mad cow disease.
Tokyo imposed the original ban in December 2003, when the United States discovered its first case of the disease. Japan had been the largest importer of U.S. beef before the embargo.
==Kyodo
kyodo.co.jp