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USDA releases checklist for beef exports to Japan
April 5, 2006
by Lane McConnell
Brownfield
On Tuesday the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a new checklist of procedures that U.S. beef plants must abide by for exporting beef to Japan.
The USDA created the list to fulfill Japanese demands and help convince Tokyo to reopen its borders to U.S. beef.
Updates have already been made by both the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service and Food Safety and Inspection Service for government meat inspectors and for companies that have enrolled in the USDA's Export Verification programs.
Both agencies have implemented the requirement of dual approval signatures on shipments for exports as part of the new checklist.
Last week USDA Under Secretary Charles Lambert was quoted as saying if Japan approves the checklist, U.S. beef producers will then have to undergo new audits by the U.S. government as well as further scrutiny by the Japanese government.
Johnson: U.S. must get American beef back into Japan
DENNIS GALE
Associated Press
Aberdeen News
Apr. 05, 2006
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The United States needs to use all the leverage it can to get American beef back into Japan, Sen. Tim Johnson said Wednesday.
"We need the border open, and the sooner, the better," he told reporters in a telephone news conference.
Japan banned all imports of U.S. beef in December 2003 after the discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in the American herd. That ban was eased in December 2005 to allow imports of American beef from cows aged 20 months or younger that did not contain body parts thought at risk of mad cow disease.
But trade was halted again in January after spine bones were found in a U.S. veal shipment. Japan considers the bones to be at risk for mad cow disease and are banned under the agreement that eased a prior ban on U.S. beef in December.
Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a degenerative nerve disease in cattle. Eating contaminated meat products has been linked to the rare but fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Japan had been the largest foreign buyer of U.S. beef.
"We need to recapture that market," Johnson said. "We have the safest, highest-quality beef in the world in the United States. And I believe we need to do everything necessary to get Japan to buy our beef at a time when we are buying their cars, their electronics and so many other products from Japan."
It's not acceptable for Japan to raise artificial constraints on exported beef, the South Dakota Democrat said.
"I think that our hand would be strengthened if we had country-of-origin labeling," he said. "Then we could confirm to the Japanese that indeed it is American beef we're selling them."
A mandatory meat labeling law was authorized in the 2002 farm bill. It was originally scheduled to begin in 2004, but the law was delayed until 2006 two years ago and then to 2008 late last year.
aberdeennews.com
April 5, 2006
by Lane McConnell
Brownfield
On Tuesday the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a new checklist of procedures that U.S. beef plants must abide by for exporting beef to Japan.
The USDA created the list to fulfill Japanese demands and help convince Tokyo to reopen its borders to U.S. beef.
Updates have already been made by both the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service and Food Safety and Inspection Service for government meat inspectors and for companies that have enrolled in the USDA's Export Verification programs.
Both agencies have implemented the requirement of dual approval signatures on shipments for exports as part of the new checklist.
Last week USDA Under Secretary Charles Lambert was quoted as saying if Japan approves the checklist, U.S. beef producers will then have to undergo new audits by the U.S. government as well as further scrutiny by the Japanese government.
Johnson: U.S. must get American beef back into Japan
DENNIS GALE
Associated Press
Aberdeen News
Apr. 05, 2006
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The United States needs to use all the leverage it can to get American beef back into Japan, Sen. Tim Johnson said Wednesday.
"We need the border open, and the sooner, the better," he told reporters in a telephone news conference.
Japan banned all imports of U.S. beef in December 2003 after the discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in the American herd. That ban was eased in December 2005 to allow imports of American beef from cows aged 20 months or younger that did not contain body parts thought at risk of mad cow disease.
But trade was halted again in January after spine bones were found in a U.S. veal shipment. Japan considers the bones to be at risk for mad cow disease and are banned under the agreement that eased a prior ban on U.S. beef in December.
Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a degenerative nerve disease in cattle. Eating contaminated meat products has been linked to the rare but fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Japan had been the largest foreign buyer of U.S. beef.
"We need to recapture that market," Johnson said. "We have the safest, highest-quality beef in the world in the United States. And I believe we need to do everything necessary to get Japan to buy our beef at a time when we are buying their cars, their electronics and so many other products from Japan."
It's not acceptable for Japan to raise artificial constraints on exported beef, the South Dakota Democrat said.
"I think that our hand would be strengthened if we had country-of-origin labeling," he said. "Then we could confirm to the Japanese that indeed it is American beef we're selling them."
A mandatory meat labeling law was authorized in the 2002 farm bill. It was originally scheduled to begin in 2004, but the law was delayed until 2006 two years ago and then to 2008 late last year.
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