Japanese panel gives greenlight to U.S. beef

[redcattle56]

LMA Daily News Briefing
Japanese panel gives greenlight to U.S. beef


A major step toward again selling U.S. beef in Japan was taken today, when a panel of Japan's Food Safety Commission ruled that the risk of BSE from U.S. beef is extremely low when "proper precautions" are taken. The full Commission is expected to consider the panel's report on Wednesday.

Media reports say this decision will lead to a resumption of imports of beef from cows younger than 21 months old, with some reports saying this could happen in December. Japan imposed its ban in 2003.

Panel Chairman Yasuhiro Yoshikawa, reading to his colleagues from today's report, said, "Based on the assumption that all precautions are taken as requested, we consider the difference in risk between U.S. and Japanese beef to be extremely small."

However, the Associated Press in Tokyo reports that approval of the report by the full Commission "will not automatically lift the ban, however. First, the health and agriculture ministries will hold a month of public hearings on beef safety before the government will make a decision."

The conflicts with wide-spread reports that the matter will be settled either before or during President Bush's visit to Japan in mid-November.

 

[Mike]

Will the consumers in the U.S. squawk about the Japs getting the safer beef?

"Japan's Food Safety Commission ruled that the risk of BSE from U.S. beef is extremely low when "proper precautions" are taken"

These precautions won't be afforded the US consumer, I guess.

As much as I want for us to ship beef to Japan, I'm afraid the Japs are gonna boycott it. They are leery of the USDA and it's incomprehensible measures to force beef on them.

 

[Sandhusker]

Will the consumers in the U.S. squawk about the Japs getting the safer beef?

"Japan's Food Safety Commission ruled that the risk of BSE from U.S. beef is extremely low when "proper precautions" are taken"

These precautions won't be afforded the US consumer, I guess.

As much as I want for us to ship beef to Japan, I'm afraid the Japs are gonna boycott it. They are leery of the USDA and it's incomprehensible measures to force beef on them.

I guess I'll beleive it when the first shipment gets unloaded.

US consumers getting riled about the Japs getting treatment they wouldn't was a vocal arguement made by some here, wasn't it? Strange how that arguement isn't being brought up now that the USDA is the ones pushing the deal. :wink:

 

[Cattleman]

So is an "extremely low" risk a lot better than "very low" risk :wink:
Shouldn't there be a Quantitative answer before exporting US beef!

 

[PORKER]

Recognizing that no country should be prevented from taking measures necessary to ensure
the quality of its exports, or for the protection of human, animal or plant life or health, of the
environment, or for the prevention of deceptive practices, at the levels it considers appropriate, subject
to the requirement that they are not applied in a manner which would constitute a means of arbitrary
or unjustifiable discrimination between countries (Japan) where the same conditions prevail or a disguised
restriction on international trade, and are otherwise in accordance with the form of international trade.

 

[PORKER]

Japan to dispatch BSE inspectors to U.S., Canada meat processors
11/01/2005

The Asahi Shimbun


The government will dispatch inspectors to U.S. and Canadian meat-processing plants to confirm safety against mad cow disease before Japan resumes beef imports from those countries, sources said.

The inspectors could leave in early December, and if safety measures are confirmed in the United States and Canada, beef imports could resume by the end of the year, the sources said.

The inspections will be conducted concurrently with a preliminary review by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Japan's decision follows a draft report by the Food Safety Commission's prion panel Monday that gave a de facto green light to the resumption of imports of beef from young cattle in those countries.

The draft report said the risk of beef from cattle 20 months old and younger being infected by bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is "extremely low," as long as stringent safety measures are observed.

The panel urged the government to monitor safety measures taken in the United States and Canada regarding BSE.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries are set to send the teams to the two countries immediately following the release of a final report by the Food Safety Commission, which is expected in early December, the sources said.

Japan will seek U.S. government permission to simultaneously inspect beef processors that have applied to an export certification program set up by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Each inspection team is expected to comprise several experts, the sources said.

Beef imports from the U.S. and Canada have been banned since 2003 over BSE concerns.(IHT/Asahi: November 1,2005)

 

[HAY MAKER]

Japan to dispatch BSE inspectors to U.S., Canada meat processors
11/01/2005

The Asahi Shimbun


The government will dispatch inspectors to U.S. and Canadian meat-processing plants to confirm safety against mad cow disease before Japan resumes beef imports from those countries, sources said.

The inspectors could leave in early December, and if safety measures are confirmed in the United States and Canada, beef imports could resume by the end of the year, the sources said.

The inspections will be conducted concurrently with a preliminary review by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Japan's decision follows a draft report by the Food Safety Commission's prion panel Monday that gave a de facto green light to the resumption of imports of beef from young cattle in those countries.

The draft report said the risk of beef from cattle 20 months old and younger being infected by bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is "extremely low," as long as stringent safety measures are observed.

The panel urged the government to monitor safety measures taken in the United States and Canada regarding BSE.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries are set to send the teams to the two countries immediately following the release of a final report by the Food Safety Commission, which is expected in early December, the sources said.

Japan will seek U.S. government permission to simultaneously inspect beef processors that have applied to an export certification program set up by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Each inspection team is expected to comprise several experts, the sources said.

Beef imports from the U.S. and Canada have been banned since 2003 over BSE concerns.(IHT/Asahi: November 1,2005)

I hope their experts are better than the ones the ncba sent to Canada,LOL.................good luck

 

[PORKER]

Japan will seek U.S. government permission to simultaneously inspect beef processors that have applied to an export certification program set up by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Which then urged the government to monitor safety measures taken in the United States and Canada regarding BSE.

 

[PORKER]

Haven't heard YET???

 

[tg]

Japan BSE panel delays decision on beef imports from U.S.
The Associated Press is reporting that a Japanese government panel on mad cow disease delayed a decision today on whether to recommend easing a ban on U.S. beef imports that has lasted two years.

The decision come in spite of the panel's draft report which says the risk of posed by beef from the U.S. is low.

The panel had been expected to send the report to the Food Safety Commission as part of the process that could open have opened the nation to beef import by the end of this year.

Prior to the ban, Japan was the largest importer of U.S. beef in the world. In 2003, about $1.5 billion in U.S. beef was shipped to Japan.