White House Presses Japan to Reopen Market to U.S. Beef...
Read moreWhite House Presses Japan to Reopen Market to U.S. Beef
By HIROKO TABUCHI
Published: April 7, 2010 NEW YORK TIMES
TOKYO — The Obama administration is stepping up pressure on Japan to reopen its market to American beef, in hopes of helping ranchers and meatpackers gain full access to what was once their most lucrative market.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has been dispatched to Tokyo to meet with his Japanese counterpart, Hirotaka Akamatsu, on Thursday.
Japan resumed American beef imports in 2006, but restricted them to meat from cattle 20 months old or younger — a limit that American exporters say has no scientific basis. Japan says older animals are more prone to developing mad cow disease. Japan also bans certain body parts.
Mr. Vilsack indicated that the United States was amenable to incremental steps to revive the beef trade to address Japanese concerns. For instance, he said the United States would be willing to gradually raise the age limit on imports.
“It’s an effort on the part of the U.S. to convey a willingness to re-energize the dialogue about beef, to convey a sense of flexibility in how we approach the ultimate reopening of this market,” Mr. Vilsack said Wednesday in an interview.
“There can be incremental steps taken to reassure the Japanese government and Japanese consumers that we can provide a safe product, a quality product,” Mr. Vilsack said.
Japan, the world’s largest net importer of food, abruptly banned shipments from American meat packers in 2003 after mad cow disease was discovered in one animal imported to the United States from Canada.
When the ban was eased in 2006, the United States ambassador to Japan at the time, J. Thomas Schieffer, appeared before Japanese television cameras to eat an American beef and rice bowl at a Tokyo restaurant. But imports have risen only slightly.
In 2003, Japan was the largest market for American beef, with exports of $1.4 billion; since then, American beef exports to Japan have averaged about $196 million, or less than 15 percent of 2003 levels.
Japan’s restrictions cost American producers about $1 billion in lost exports a year, according to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
American lawmakers have urged Mr. Obama to do more to urge Japan to relax its stance. Last month, Senators Mike Johanns, Republican of Nebraska, and Blanche Lincoln, Democrat of Arkansas, introduced a resolution pressing Japan to immediately expand market access for American beef.
Mr. Johanns, a former agriculture secretary, has contrasted Japan’s strict stance with what he said had been Washington’s more cautious handling of Toyota cars amid recalls over sudden acceleration problems.
He referred to “an inconsistency between Japan’s continued ban on safe U.S. beef and beef products compared to America’s fair treatment of Japan after reports of faulty Toyota vehicles,” in remarks after meeting Japan’s ambassador to the United States in March.
The Obama administration is eager to increase American exports to help rebuild the economy. In his State of the Union address in January, Mr. Obama said he aimed to double total American exports in the next five years.
Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a fatal disease that affects the brains of cattle; it has been linked to a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a fatal illness in humans.
Americans note that in recent years, Japanese beef producers have found at least 36 cases of mad cow among their cattle herds while only three have been identified in the United States.
But Japanese producers argue that they test all cows bound for slaughter for the disease, while the American meat industry has resisted blanket testing, partly because of cost concerns. Some critics also question the accuracy of testing methods.
Concerns about American beef among the Japanese public have been fanned by the discovery of several shipments from the United States that contained banned cow parts.
“Whether food safety is strictly secured is the issue,” Mr. Akamatsu, the agriculture minister, told reporters on Wednesday. “The Japan-U.S. relationship is important, but that does not mean food safety can be neglected.”
Saya Speidel contributed research.
A version of this article appeared in print on April 8, 2010, on page B10 of the New York edition.
