Japan close to lifting beef ban, diplomat says
Posted on Thu, Oct. 20, 2005
BY NICHOLAS JUNGMAN
The Wichita Eagle
A Japanese diplomat speaking Thursday in Wichita said the Japanese government is very close to lifting its ban on U.S. beef.
Junichi Ihara, acting deputy chief of mission at Japan's embassy in Washington, said that his country's Food Safety Commission "has almost come to the conclusion that U.S. beef is safe."
He said the commission could issue its conclusion in a meeting next week or in a second meeting to follow.
Ihara was speaking to participants in the Kansas World Trade Center's 2005 International Trade Conference at the Hyatt Regency Wichita. One of the sponsors of the conference was Wichita-based Cargill Meat Solutions, a major beef exporter.
Ihara's comments echoed comments made earlier by Lt. Gov. John Moore, who spoke at lunch about assurances made to him by Japan's ambassador during a meeting at Kansas State University.
Japan banned imports of American beef in 2003 after a cow in Washington state was discovered to have so-called mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, a brain-wasting condition that is linked to a similar, fatal disease in humans, variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease.
The Food Safety Commission, a panel of scientific experts, was created by the Japanese government in response to the mad cow disease crisis. Ihara said he couldn't guarantee that the commission would conclude that U.S. beef was safe, but the progress of its meetings to date indicate that such a conclusion is nearly assured.
If the commission recommends the resumption of U.S. beef imports, a period allowing the Japanese public to comment would follow. After that, government ministries would finalize the order, and imports could resume by the end of the year, Ihara said.
For more about Ihara's remarks and other news from the International Trade Conference, read tomorrow's Eagle.
