Japan panel says US beef is safe, trade to resume

By Aya Takada

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan will ease a ban on U.S. beef
imports after a Japanese panel declared on Monday that beef
from young American cattle is safe if risk materials that could
transmit mad cow disease are removed, government officials
said.

The panel at Japan’s Food Safety Commission ended five
months of discussion on the safety of U.S. beef with a
conclusion that beef and beef offal from American cattle aged
20 months or younger are at very low risk from mad cow disease
if specified materials, such as bovine heads and spinal cords,
are removed.

“We concluded that with regard to the risk of mad cow
disease, the difference between Japanese beef and meat from
American cattle aged 20 months or below is very small,”
Yasuhiro Yoshikawa, the chairman of the subcommittee, said
after compiling a report assessing the risks of U.S. beef.

It was not immediately clear when imports of U.S. beef
would resume, but media reports on Monday suggested it could be
in December.

Japan’s new farm minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, hailed the
panel’s conclusion as an important step toward resuming U.S.
beef imports.

“My understanding is that a direction has been shown toward
(resolving the issue),” Nakagawa, who was appointed in a
cabinet reshuffle on Monday, told a news conference.

Nakagawa said he would take the steps necessary to move
toward reopening Japan’s beef market to U.S. meat.

He added that he would also take into account consumers’
concerns about food safety.

The Japanese government asked the commission last May to
rule on the safety of U.S. beef, and it had been waiting for a
positive conclusion from the panel before it allowed beef
imports to resume.

Japan imposed the ban on U.S. beef and beef products in
December 2003 following the discovery of the first U.S. case of
mad cow disease in Washington state.

Before the ban, Japan was the top importer of U.S. beef,
with imports valued at $1.4 billion in 2003.

Japanese Vice Farm Minister Mamoru Ishihara said on Monday
he also welcomed the panel’s report.

“We are grateful to the commission for completing the
report,” Ishihara told a news conference. “I respect the report
as it has been presented.”

However, Ishihara said he was unsure when imports of U.S.
beef would resume.

U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss
said last week that Japanese Ambassador Ryozo Kato told him
resuming purchases of U.S. beef would involve “a four-month
process” after food safety experts agreed the meat was safe.

But a senior Japanese government official said earlier this
month that imports would resume promptly after the Food Safety
Commission gave final approval.

The commission will now seek public comments on the panel’s
report for four weeks, possibly from Wednesday, before approval
becomes final, a commission official said.

The food safety panel also said on Monday that beef and
beef offal from Canadian cattle aged 20 months or less were at
very low risk from mad cow disease. Japan banned imports of
Canadian beef in May 2003 after the first Canadian case of mad
cow disease.

U.S. ANGER, CONSUMER OPPOSITION

In October last year, Japan agreed with the United States
to resume imports of beef from cattle aged 20 months or
younger, which are considered to be at low risk of mad cow
disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy
(BSE).

The countries also agreed that specified risk materials
must be removed from cattle of all ages before the meat is
shipped to Japan.

But Tokyo has insisted that shipments could not resume
until the Food Safety Commission declared that U.S. beef to be
exported to Japan under the agreed conditions was as safe as
domestic meat.

The ban has produced a rising tide of anger and frustration
in the United States, where lawmakers proposed retaliatory
tariffs on Japanese products if it was not lifted by
mid-December.

Washington has been trying to resolve the issue ahead of a
visit to Japan by President George W. Bush on November 16.

Always fatal, mad cow disease is believed to be caused by
malformed proteins and spread through infected feed.

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human version of
BSE, is thought to be spread by eating contaminated meat. It
has caused more than 150 deaths worldwide, including one in
Japan.

Japanese consumer groups, concerned about the safety of
U.S. beef, have said they would launch a campaign to boycott
American beef if the government decides to restart imports.

Nearly 70 percent of Japanese are opposed to resuming U.S.
beef imports while 20 percent are in favor, a poll published
last week found.

(Additional reporting by Chikafumi Hodo and Miho Yoshikawa)