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Japan eases ban on US, Canadian beef imports

Posted on: Monday, 12 December 2005, 03:20 CST

By Aya Takada

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan on Monday eased a two-year-old ban on American beef imposed because of mad cow disease, averting a trade war with Washington where lawmakers had threatened retaliation unless beef trade resumed by mid-December.

In line with a recommendation from Japan's Food Safety Commission, the government said it lifted a ban on imports of beef and beef offal from U.S. and Canadian cattle aged up to 20 months, on condition that risk materials that could transmit mad cow disease are removed before the meat is shipped to Japan.

Japan will keep a ban on beef from older American cattle as they may be at higher risk from the brain-wasting disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

"We have eased the ban because the U.S. and Canadian governments told us they would accept the conditions," Mitsuhiro Miyakoshi, senior vice minister of the Agriculture Ministry, told a news conference on Monday.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, who is in Hong Kong to attend a ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization, said U.S. beef shipments to Japan could resume shortly.

"We've heard that beef could be headed toward Japan certainly within the next week to 10 days," Johanns told reporters.

Japan banned U.S. beef and beef products in December 2003 after the first U.S. case of BSE was found in Washington state.

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

Japan banned imports of Canadian beef and beef products in May 2003 after the first Canadian case of BSE was confirmed.

Canada was a minor beef exporter to Japan, while the United States supplied about a quarter of Japan's total beef demand of 930,000 tonnes in 2003.

The ban led to anger and frustration in the United States, where lawmakers proposed retaliatory tariffs on Japanese products if it was not lifted by mid-December.

Australia, currently a dominant beef exporter to Japan, expects a decline in beef sales to Japan as U.S. beef is about to return to the Japanese market.

"There's no doubt it will hit sales, but it is not clear yet by how much," Meat & Livestock Australia senior analyst Peter Weeks said.

Australian beef imports to Japan nearly doubled to A$2.5 billion after Japan halted U.S. beef imports.

INSPECTION, TARIFFS

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.

Miyakoshi said the Japanese government would send inspectors to the United States and Canada for about 10 days from Tuesday to check whether U.S. and Canadian plants designated as beef suppliers to Japan meet the requirements.

He said the Japanese inspectors would check whether workers in such plants properly remove specified risk materials, such as bovine heads and spinal cords, from beef bound for Japan.

The inspectors would also check whether the plants keep beef shipments to Japan completely separate from shipments to other markets, and whether they confirm the age of cattle based on production records or the beef grading system, he added.

"In case violations of the requirements occur repeatedly, we will take appropriate actions, including possible suspension of beef imports from the United States and Canada," Miyakoshi said.

Asked about a request by the U.S. beef industry to raise the cattle age limit to 30 months, Miyakoshi said the ministry had no plan to relax the conditions for American beef imports.

A Canadian provincial farm official visiting Taiwan said he was pleased by the Japanese move but added the 20-month age limit was unnecessary.

"The decision to open a border based on anything other than under 30 months really doesn't have any basis in science," Doug Horner, Alberta's agriculture minister, told an American Chamber of Commerce event in Taipei.

In an attempt to avoid further friction with the U.S. beef industry and the government, Japan's Agriculture Ministry will also revise rules for applying emergency tariffs on beef imports.

"We will revise the rule in order to lower chances for emergency beef tariffs next year," a ministry official said.

Under current rules, Japan can raise import tariffs on beef if quarterly imports jump 17 percent from a year earlier.

Under the revised rules, effective for a year starting next April, the comparisons will be with the corresponding quarters of fiscal 2002/03 and 2003/04, just before Japan banned U.S. beef, rather than with the previous year.

Under rules adopted by the World Trade Organization, Japan is allowed to raise import tariffs as an emergency step to protect domestic beef producers from a rise in imports.

(Additional reporting by Chikafumi Hodo and Miho Yoshikawa in

Tokyo, James Regan in Sydney, and Doug Palmer in Hong Kong)

Source: REUTERS

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