Fwd: US beef industry offers plan to resume exports to Japan

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MadcowCoverup

Mon, 15 Mar 2004 08:21:32 -0800 (PST)

US beef industry offers plan to resume exports to

Japan

 

 

SO, the cattle industry is willing to certify beef for Japan but not their

countrymen!

 

 

US beef industry offers plan to resume exports to Japan (contingent on

certification)

 

 

 

(Reuters)

 

By Richard Cowan

 

WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Japan's trade minister was to meet Bush

administration officials on Thursday as the U.S. meat industry lobbied for a

plan that would certify American beef shipments as free of mad cow disease to

win back Japan's business.

 

Calming the mad cow concerns of Japan, the single biggest buyer of U.S. beef, is

seen as the key to reinstating all American exports, which totaled $3.2 billion

last year.

 

U.S. consumers have shrugged off news of the first U.S. case of bovine

spongiform encephalopahty (BSE), but Japanese consumers are more wary. Humans

can contract a form of the deadly disease by eating infected meat.

 

Moving too quickly to resume imports " could result in loss of confidence " among

the Japanese, Japanese Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa told reporters after

meeting with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Wednesday evening.

 

Nakagawa and Veneman declined to say what steps, if any, were being considered

to persuade Japan to ease its beef ban.

 

Nakagawa was scheduled to hold further talks on Thursday with U.S. Trade

Representative Robert Zoellick.

 

" We are looking for common ways ... to move this quickly along " and restore

trade, Veneman said.

 

U.S. industry sources told Reuters that a new program was being discussed to

reassure Japan that U.S. beef is safe to eat. The plan would certify that

American beef shipments either came from cattle too young to have the ailment or

from older animals that have been tested, the sources said.

 

Under the program, slaughter plants would carefully plan when they handle cattle

whose meat was intended for Japan.

 

" Plants will do production on designated days for shipment to Japan and they'll

make sure the cattle they have lined up for that day include nothing that's over

30 months, " said one industry official knowledgeable about the talks.

 

Scientists believe cattle under 30 months old are least likely to carry mad cow

disease.

 

30 MONTHS

 

The program would include the USDA's assurance that all cattle over 30 months

would be tested for mad cow disease if the meat was destined for Japan. That

would involve small amounts of testing because virtually all U.S. beef sold to

Japan in recent years was from younger, lower-risk animals, the U.S. industry

sources said.

 

The USDA declined to comment on the industry proposal, which would require the

government's blessing to take effect.

 

The industry sources said it was unclear what would happen if other beef

importing nations demanded the same treatment as might be given to Japan.

 

Share prices in U.S. restaurant and fast food chains have rebounded since an

initial decline immediately after the USDA announced on Dec. 23 it diagnosed the

first U.S. case of mad cow.

 

U.S. cattle futures tumbled by as much as 20 percent, but prices rose the

maximum daily limit of 1.5 cents per pound on Wednesday on hopes Japan would

consider easing its ban.

 

The USDA investigation found the infected dairy cow in Washington state was born

in Alberta, Canada.

 

Consumer groups and some Democrats are demanding that Republican lawmakers drop

a plan for a two-year delay in country-of-origin labeling on beef products sold

in U.S. grocery stores.

 

The labels are required by law to go into effect by Sept. 29, but the meat

industry opposes them because of the extra cost.

 

 

 

 

karl theis jr

 

 

http://groups.msn.com/exposureofthetruth

 

madcowcoverup-

 

theoneswithoutnames-

 

 

 

 

 

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