Tokyo – Japan took a step toward resuming imports of American beef Monday when a government panel ruled the risk of mad cow infection in U.S. beef is extremely low if proper precautions are taken.
The panel on mad cow disease forwarded its report to the full Food Safety Commission, which is expected to consider it Wednesday.
Japan banned U.S. beef in December 2003 after the discovery of the first U.S. case of the bovine illness. At the time, Japan was the most lucrative overseas market for U.S. beef, and an increasingly impatient Washington has pushed hard for a resumption of the trade. Last week, 21 U.S. senators, including Colorado Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar, introduced legislation that would force President Bush to impose tariffs on Japan if it does not lift the ban.
“Based on the assumption that all precautions are taken as requested, we consider the difference in risk between U.S. and Japanese beef to be extremely small,” panel chairman Yasuhiro Yoshikawa said, reading the report to his colleagues.
Members of Colorado’s cattle industry applauded the report.
“We’re pleased with the progress being made in this area,” said Sean McHugh, vice president of investor relations and communications at Greeley-based Swift & Co., the world’s second-largest beef and pork processing company, with net sales of $9.7 billion.
Centennial-based National Cattlemen’s Beef Association estimated an economic loss for the U.S. cattle industry of $3.14 billion a year due to the embargo.
“We have a very high-quality beef product, and we have been unfairly cornered out of the global trade market,” said Kathleen Kelley, a Meeker rancher and co- founder of the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, commonly known as R-CALF.
News reports say the decision will lead to a resumption of imports of beef products from U.S. cows younger than 21 months old as early as the end of this year. No case of mad cow has ever been discovered in animals that age.
Approval by the Food Safety Commission will not automatically lift the ban, however. First, the health and agriculture ministries will hold a month of public hearings on beef safety before the government makes a decision.
And before resuming imports, the ministries are expected to send inspection teams to check whether U.S. beef meets Japanese standards, such as having risk materials such as brains and spinal cords removed, Kyodo News agency reported.
Japanese consumers remain wary of U.S. beef, with recent polls showing nearly 70 percent opposed to lifting the ban.
Denver Post staff writer Julie Dunn contributed to this report.
