Public request gov't be cautious on U.S. beef imports resumption
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)
April 24, 2006
TAKAMATSU, Japan, April 24_(Kyodo) _ Consumers insisted the government be cautious on resuming U.S. beef imports, while meat distributors expressed their position at an explanatory meeting on the stance Japan has taken in talks with the United States over lifting its reinstated import ban on American beef.
The meeting held in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, was the last of a series of ten explanatory meetings the health and farm ministries held in ten Japanese locations, which started on April 11 in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture.
At the meeting attended by about 130 people, many told government officials not make a hasty decision and to take time in reviewing the issue, while meat distributors said that many broiled meat restaurants and meat packers are closing down in the wake of the ban.
The government plans to go to the negotiating table with the United States after examining the opinions voiced by Japanese consumers at the forums, officials from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said earlier.
With the ending of the meetings, the two countries are expected to hold director-general-level talks on the issue as early as next month after the United States finishes inspections on its facilities for meat exports to Japan.
Experts from Japan and the United States met in March over the discovery of a backbone part -- banned under a Japan-U.S. agreement due to risk of mad cow disease -- in a veal shipment at Narita airport Jan. 20.
The Japanese side promised to hold such explanatory meetings for Japanese consumers, while the U.S. side promised to recheck the facilities for meat export to Japan.
The January backbone discovery came a month after Japan lifted the original two-year-old ban on the condition that imports be limited to meat from cattle aged up to 20 months with brains, spinal cords and other risk materials removed before shipping. Tokyo reinstated the ban immediately.
In the future talks, the two sides are expected to discuss under what conditions U.S. beef imports may be authorized anew, and with what timing such imports may be permitted, the officials said earlier.
tmcnet.com
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)
April 24, 2006
TAKAMATSU, Japan, April 24_(Kyodo) _ Consumers insisted the government be cautious on resuming U.S. beef imports, while meat distributors expressed their position at an explanatory meeting on the stance Japan has taken in talks with the United States over lifting its reinstated import ban on American beef.
The meeting held in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, was the last of a series of ten explanatory meetings the health and farm ministries held in ten Japanese locations, which started on April 11 in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture.
At the meeting attended by about 130 people, many told government officials not make a hasty decision and to take time in reviewing the issue, while meat distributors said that many broiled meat restaurants and meat packers are closing down in the wake of the ban.
The government plans to go to the negotiating table with the United States after examining the opinions voiced by Japanese consumers at the forums, officials from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said earlier.
With the ending of the meetings, the two countries are expected to hold director-general-level talks on the issue as early as next month after the United States finishes inspections on its facilities for meat exports to Japan.
Experts from Japan and the United States met in March over the discovery of a backbone part -- banned under a Japan-U.S. agreement due to risk of mad cow disease -- in a veal shipment at Narita airport Jan. 20.
The Japanese side promised to hold such explanatory meetings for Japanese consumers, while the U.S. side promised to recheck the facilities for meat export to Japan.
The January backbone discovery came a month after Japan lifted the original two-year-old ban on the condition that imports be limited to meat from cattle aged up to 20 months with brains, spinal cords and other risk materials removed before shipping. Tokyo reinstated the ban immediately.
In the future talks, the two sides are expected to discuss under what conditions U.S. beef imports may be authorized anew, and with what timing such imports may be permitted, the officials said earlier.
tmcnet.com