From: Econ101
To: MRJ
Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:23 pm
Subject: Swift Edit message
Not to be snooty if you didn't see this post, MRJ:
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Tommy
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Joined: 11 Feb 2005
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Location: South East Kansas
PostPosted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:52 pm Post subject: Swift plant disqualified, no beef to JPN Reply with quote
Swift plant disqualified, no beef to JPN
U.S. disqualifies plant as processor of beef for shipment to Japan
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)
TMC Net
TOKYO, Feb. 16_2006_(Kyodo) _ The U.S. government has informed Japan that it has disqualified major U.S. meat packer Swift Beef Co.'s plant in Nebraska as a processor of beef for export to Japan due to a violation of procedures, the Japanese government said Thursday.
The Nebraska plant is one of the 38 slaughterhouses authorized to process beef for shipments to Japan.
According to the information from Washington, Swift Beef has presented the U.S. Department of Agriculture with a quality control program stating that its head office would designate suppliers of cattle whose ages can be confirmed in compliance with conditions set by the Japanese government, said the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
It turned out, however, that the Nebraska plant made the designation on its own, the ministries said.
In mid-December, Japan lifted a two-year-old ban on U.S. beef imports it imposed due to mad cow disease concerns. Conditions set by Japan limit imports to meat from cattle aged up to 20 months and require the removal of brains, spinal cords and other materials that could transmit the disease before shipping.
But the Japanese government reintroduced the ban on Jan. 20 after a prohibited backbone was found in a shipment of beef from the United States.
The procedural violation by the Nebraska plant was found through a U.S. government investigation conducted under terms agreed upon by Tokyo and Washington for the resumption of American beef imports.
While the Nebraska plant has shipped some 30 tons of beef to Japan since last December, production data recovered by U.S. government investigators show that the shipments cleared the Japanese conditions for imports, the ministries said.
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