Posted before, but it must have went to lala land, so will try again.
From NCBA's news letter "Re-opening markets that are closed to U.S. beef, specifically Japan. Smaller export markets are continuing to open, including the recent announcements of trade resumption with Egypt and Taiwan, but NCBA is continuing to pressure Congress and the Administration to push for a resolution on Japan. Japanese officials have said that R-Calf's injunction is stalling progress on opening this key market."
Hmmm Japan says nothing about R-calf. Wonder if this is NCBA mud slinging again.
Tokyo, Apr 14, 2005 (BBC Monitoring via COMTEX) -- Japan remained undecided Friday [15 April] on when to lift its import ban on US beef in a report it submitted to the Office of the US Trade Representative in reaction to the office's call for an early resumption of beef imports.
"Japan cannot predict a specific time frame of the resumption at this juncture of the review" of domestic measures to detect mad cow disease, the Japanese government said. "This is not a trade issue, but a food safety issue," Japan said, stressing the need to secure food safety and consumers' confidence "as a prerequisite as well as based on science". The beef issue has been at the centre of a bilateral dispute. Japan presented the report after the USTR said it would "continue to press Japan on this important issue at all levels of the US government until US beef exports resume" in the National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers. But Japan also remained committed to making efforts to resolve the trade conflict in the report titled "Comments of the Government of Japan on the NTE Report". Japan said it "shares the understanding with the US government on the necessity of early solution of the issue, and is of the view that this should not be a significant impediment to the bilateral relations". Japan, without exception, suspends the import of beef and beef products from countries affected by bovine spongiform encephalopathy until measures applied to them are demonstrated to achieve the equivalent level of protection to those applied to Japanese beef and beef products, the Japanese report said. "Those whole processes are fully compliant with an agreement of the World Trade Organization," Japan contended. Japan also tried to assuage dissatisfaction among some in the United States who say Tokyo has failed to follow up on an "agreement" that the two countries reached during bilateral talks on the issue which ended 23 October in Tokyo. The report said Japan "points out that the (23 October) Joint Press Statement describes that the two governments 'shared the view'", instead of "agreed" as the USTR report said. A Japanese Foreign Ministry official said Thursday, "To share a view is different from to reach a legally-binding agreement." Earlier this month, bipartisan lawmakers in the United States submitted resolutions in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, urging the USTR to immediately impose sanctions on Japan for failing to implement an agreement last October to resume imports of beef from animals aged up to 20 months. The United States is calling on Japan to quickly implement the October agreement that Japan would resume imports of American beef from cattle aged 20 months or younger. But Japan still maintains that the safety of beef from younger cattle has not been scientifically verified by the Food Safety Commission, an entity independent from the government.
From NCBA's news letter "Re-opening markets that are closed to U.S. beef, specifically Japan. Smaller export markets are continuing to open, including the recent announcements of trade resumption with Egypt and Taiwan, but NCBA is continuing to pressure Congress and the Administration to push for a resolution on Japan. Japanese officials have said that R-Calf's injunction is stalling progress on opening this key market."
Hmmm Japan says nothing about R-calf. Wonder if this is NCBA mud slinging again.
Tokyo, Apr 14, 2005 (BBC Monitoring via COMTEX) -- Japan remained undecided Friday [15 April] on when to lift its import ban on US beef in a report it submitted to the Office of the US Trade Representative in reaction to the office's call for an early resumption of beef imports.
"Japan cannot predict a specific time frame of the resumption at this juncture of the review" of domestic measures to detect mad cow disease, the Japanese government said. "This is not a trade issue, but a food safety issue," Japan said, stressing the need to secure food safety and consumers' confidence "as a prerequisite as well as based on science". The beef issue has been at the centre of a bilateral dispute. Japan presented the report after the USTR said it would "continue to press Japan on this important issue at all levels of the US government until US beef exports resume" in the National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers. But Japan also remained committed to making efforts to resolve the trade conflict in the report titled "Comments of the Government of Japan on the NTE Report". Japan said it "shares the understanding with the US government on the necessity of early solution of the issue, and is of the view that this should not be a significant impediment to the bilateral relations". Japan, without exception, suspends the import of beef and beef products from countries affected by bovine spongiform encephalopathy until measures applied to them are demonstrated to achieve the equivalent level of protection to those applied to Japanese beef and beef products, the Japanese report said. "Those whole processes are fully compliant with an agreement of the World Trade Organization," Japan contended. Japan also tried to assuage dissatisfaction among some in the United States who say Tokyo has failed to follow up on an "agreement" that the two countries reached during bilateral talks on the issue which ended 23 October in Tokyo. The report said Japan "points out that the (23 October) Joint Press Statement describes that the two governments 'shared the view'", instead of "agreed" as the USTR report said. A Japanese Foreign Ministry official said Thursday, "To share a view is different from to reach a legally-binding agreement." Earlier this month, bipartisan lawmakers in the United States submitted resolutions in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, urging the USTR to immediately impose sanctions on Japan for failing to implement an agreement last October to resume imports of beef from animals aged up to 20 months. The United States is calling on Japan to quickly implement the October agreement that Japan would resume imports of American beef from cattle aged 20 months or younger. But Japan still maintains that the safety of beef from younger cattle has not been scientifically verified by the Food Safety Commission, an entity independent from the government.