Japan agrees to ease ban on U.S. beef
December 12, 2005
Associated Press / Washington Post
Hans Greimel
TOKYO -- The easing Monday of Japan's two-year ban on U.S. and Canadian beef imports could put American steaks back on Japanese plates by year's end, but lingering worries persist on both sides of the Pacific.
Japanese consumers are leery as ever about mad cow disease, while North American ranchers bemoan the limited trade opening as only a first step toward tapping what was once their most lucrative overseas market.
Customers crowd a beef bowl restaurant Yoshinoya in Tokyo as the company revived its popular beef-on-rice dishes for one day on the first anniversary of the dishes being pulled off the menu due to Japan's ban on American beef imports over mad cow disease, in this Feb. 11, 2005 file photo. The Japanese government is poised to ease its two-year ban on U.S. beef imports as early as Monday, Dec. 12, 2005 according to media reports, in a move that would resolve a bitter trade row between Tokyo and its top ally.
Customers crowd a beef bowl restaurant Yoshinoya in Tokyo as the company revived its popular beef-on-rice dishes for one day on the first anniversary of the dishes being pulled off the menu due to Japan's ban on American beef imports over mad cow disease, in this Feb. 11, 2005 file photo. The Japanese government is poised to ease its two-year ban on U.S. beef imports as early as Monday, Dec. 12, 2005 according to media reports, in a move that would resolve a bitter trade row between Tokyo and its top ally.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said he believed U.S. beef could arrive in Japan within 10 days and applauded Japan's decision as "an important step in terms of normalizing beef trade based on scientific standards."
Japanese officials meanwhile tried to reassure a skeptical public that strict guidelines will guarantee the meat's safety when shipments arrive for the first time since December 2003, when mad cow disease was discovered in the U.S. herd.
"We still don't know for sure whether U.S. beef is safe or not," office worker Nagasawa Haruo, 37, said after lunching on pork and rice in downtown Tokyo. "My wife says she will not buy beef at grocery stores."
Trade will resume with a host of new rules for North American beef. Japan will only import meat from cows younger than 21 months because no cases of mad cow disease have ever been found in cows that age. U.S. inspectors must also follow strict guidelines, such as removing dangerous cow material such as brains and spinal cords.
Japan will dispatch inspection teams to review North American exporting facilities starting Tuesday, the Health Ministry said.
"The issue of food safety is a fundamental part of everyday life, and we will do our best to ensure it," said Japan's vice agricultural minister, Mitsuhiro Miyakoshi.
Before the ban, Japan had purchased more American beef than any other country in the world, buying $1.4 billion worth in 2003. Japan estimates that under the new guidelines, some 5 million American cows could prove eligible for export.
But a survey last week by Kyodo showed some 75 percent of Japanese are unwilling to eat U.S. beef because of mad cow fears, compared to 21 percent who said they would consume it. Most worry about the reliability of U.S. inspection measures.
Eating beef from cattle infected with mad cow disease can cause the fatal brain disorder Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
While the United States has had two cases of mad cow disease, Japan has reported 21 since its first case in 2001, including one death. The Health Ministry, however, believes the man, who died in December 2004, contracted the disease from eating beef during a one-month stay in Britain.
Johanns said an announcement would come Monday on whether the United States will lift its own ban on Japanese beef. The Agriculture Department has been working since August on a rule that would lift the ban, which the United States imposes on countries with cases of mad cow disease.
The United States lifted a ban on Canadian beef earlier this year.
American ranchers, meanwhile, are daunted by the task of breaking back into the Japanese market.
Selling beef to Japan will generally mean keeping a paper trail from the ranch to the feedlot to the slaughterhouse, to verify cattle are killed at 20 months of age or younger. But birth records alone will not do, and in many cases, producers will need third-party verification of their documents and herds for corroboration, according to beef experts at Iowa State University.
Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, said the move was welcomed, but that ranchers would have preferred trade without age restrictions.
"We're very pleased to have this first step taken. But we see it as just that, a first step," he said.
The head of the U.S. Meat Export Federation warned in September it would take years to regain lost market share even if Tokyo reopens its markets because the age restrictions mean only as much as 35 percent of American cattle could be sold to Japan.
Although Japan has reported more cases of mad cow disease than the United States, Japan tests every domestic cow that goes to the slaughterhouse, and it initially demanded that the United States do the same before resuming trade.
U.S. authorities balked at the cost of testing the huge American herd and argued that it was not scientifically necessary.
"This has been a long process and I believe that Japanese consumers can be sure that every step has been taken to ensure that their health and safety would be protected," U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer said.
One thing consumers can look forward to are lower beef prices, which spiked after U.S. beef was barred from the country. That's a factor that resonates with 65-year-old noodle shop owner Katsumi Inoue, who has no qualms about digging in again.
"So long as it's cheap, it's all good," Inoue said.
The 2003 discovery of mad cow in the United States prompted dozens of countries to ban U.S. beef; at least 70 countries have since lifted their bans, at least partially, according to the chief economist of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
