Punish Japan if won't buy US beef: Senate panel
Reuters
Thursday, June 22, 2006; 3:46 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States should impose economic sanctions on Japan if it fails to put aside its fears of mad cow disease and open its borders to U.S. beef by the end of the summer, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted on Thursday.
Committee members approved the nonbinding language on a voice vote to be part of a fiscal 2007 agricultural funding bill. The Senate could debate the bill as early as next week, the same time Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visits the White House.
"I hope he takes heed of this," said Montana Republican Conrad Burns, sponsor of the "sense of the Senate" language.
Burns said a U.S.-Japan agreement on Wednesday on steps to restart trade was just "another stalling tactic" to stretch out Japan's ban on U.S. beef, imposed as a precaution against mad cow disease.
"They have a worse (mad cow) problem by far than we do," Burns added.
The language approved by the committee was similar to a bill filed on Wednesday by half a dozen senators from farm and ranch states in asking for sanctions of $3 billion a year if Japan does not end its ban.
U.S. beef has been barred from entering Japan for 28 of the past 29 months.
Cattle groups and their allies in Congress have expressed increasing frustration at being locked out of Japan, the longtime No. 1 customer for U.S. beef exports. In 2003, Japan bought more than $100 million a month in U.S. beef before cutting off trade in December following discovery of the first U.S. case of mad cow.
Reuters
Thursday, June 22, 2006; 3:46 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States should impose economic sanctions on Japan if it fails to put aside its fears of mad cow disease and open its borders to U.S. beef by the end of the summer, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted on Thursday.
Committee members approved the nonbinding language on a voice vote to be part of a fiscal 2007 agricultural funding bill. The Senate could debate the bill as early as next week, the same time Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visits the White House.
"I hope he takes heed of this," said Montana Republican Conrad Burns, sponsor of the "sense of the Senate" language.
Burns said a U.S.-Japan agreement on Wednesday on steps to restart trade was just "another stalling tactic" to stretch out Japan's ban on U.S. beef, imposed as a precaution against mad cow disease.
"They have a worse (mad cow) problem by far than we do," Burns added.
The language approved by the committee was similar to a bill filed on Wednesday by half a dozen senators from farm and ranch states in asking for sanctions of $3 billion a year if Japan does not end its ban.
U.S. beef has been barred from entering Japan for 28 of the past 29 months.
Cattle groups and their allies in Congress have expressed increasing frustration at being locked out of Japan, the longtime No. 1 customer for U.S. beef exports. In 2003, Japan bought more than $100 million a month in U.S. beef before cutting off trade in December following discovery of the first U.S. case of mad cow.