Japan says lifts ban on US beef imports from Thurs

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan said it had formally decided to
allow U.S. beef imports, suspended for the past six months, to
restart from Thursday from all but one of 35 U.S. beef
processing plants authorized by the U.S. government as
suppliers to Japan.

Japan’s decision will take effect later in the day after it
notifies the United States, a government official said.

The decision came after the government concluded, based on
a report from Japanese inspectors, that most of the authorized
U.S. beef plants had no problems complying with Japan’s safety
requirements.

Japan requires U.S. suppliers not to export beef from
animals older than 20 months, and to eliminate specified risk
materials suspected of spreading mad cow disease, such as
spinal cords, before shipment.

Japan suspended U.S. beef imports on January 20, just a
month after it had lifted a two-year-old ban on U.S. beef
imposed due to concerns about mad cow disease, when Japanese
inspectors found banned cattle parts in a veal shipment from a
New York company.

Japan’s ban has been one of the thorniest economic issues
between Tokyo and Washington, as Japan had previously been the
largest export market for U.S. beef.

Japan bought 240,000 tonnes of U.S. beef valued at $1.4
billion in 2003, before the ban was imposed in December of that
year following the discovery of the first U.S. case of mad cow
disease.

The Japanese inspectors were in the United States from June
24 to July 22, in line with a June agreement between the two
governments that U.S. beef shipments to Japan would restart
after Japan inspected the authorized beef plants.

Japan will keep a ban on imports from one plant, now
changing its operations manual, until the government confirms
the final contents of the manual.

The government will accept beef imports from one of the
other plants on condition that the U.S. government puts the
processor under close watch. The plant had shipped beef to
Japan from cattle slaughtered before it was authorized by the
U.S. government as a supplier.

Japan will allow immediate imports from the remaining 33
plants to restart with no additional conditions.