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http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2006/01/15/2003289077

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/archives/2006/01/15/2003289119

US calls on Asian countries to lift bans on US beef

 

SMALL VICTORY: The appeal to Taiwan, China and other countries came

after South Korea agreed to partially re-open its market to the US

 

CNA , WASHINGTON

Sunday, Jan 15, 2006,Page 3

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Friday called on several

Asian countries including Taiwan to lift their bans on beef imports

from the US, after South Korea agreed to partially re-open its market

to US beef.

 

The agreement will allow the US to export boneless beef from cattle

less than 30 months of age to South Korea. The progress came in the

wake of similar steps taken by Japan and Hong Kong.

 

" As we continue discussions with Korea, I urge Thailand, China,

Taiwan, Singapore and others to comply with science-based

international guidelines and reopen their markets to US beef, " said

Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns.

 

More than 40 countries including Taiwan banned beef imports from the

US in December 2003 after the discovery in Washington State of a

single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow

disease.

 

In April last year, Taiwan lifted the ban on US boneless beef from

animals under 30 months of age, but again suspended US beef imports on

June 25 that same year after a second case of mad cow disease was

confirmed in the US earlier that month.

 

Taiwan's Legislative Yuan adopted on Thursday a non-binding resolution

setting the conditions under which the import of US beef could be

resumed.

 

These conditions include that the government should draw up a

consumer-protection plan, that the US should provide biodata for its

food exports and that the government should send officials to the US

to monitor US management of cattle for export to ensure that beef from

the US is absolutely safe and that no new cases of mad cow disease

have appeared since June last year.

 

Taiwan annually imported some US$325 million of US beef products,

making it the sixth largest market for the US before the ban was

imposed. Japan and South Korea were the largest and third-largest

markets, respectively.

 

So far, the US has recovered access to foreign markets valued at more

than US$3.2 billion, or 82 percent of the 2003 export value for US

beef of US$3.9 billion, according to tallies from the USDA.

 

US puts pressure on Seoul to ease beef ban further

 

MAD COW DISEASE: After prohibiting US beef imports in December 2003,

South Korea agreed to resume shipments, but only of boneless meat

 

AP , WASHINGTON

Sunday, Jan 15, 2006,Page 11

Senior US officials pressed South Korea on Friday to go further in

lifting a ban on importing US beef imposed because of mad cow disease.

 

The officials are putting similar pressure on Japan, which lifted its

own ban last month and helped pave the way for such actions by Hong

Kong and South Korea.

 

South Korea agreed early on Friday to resume shipments of US beef,

which had been prohibited since the December 2003 discovery of mad cow

disease in the US.

 

But a prohibition will remain on ribs and other bone-in beef, which

keeps closed about 45 percent of the potential market. South Korea was

worth a total of US$815 million to US producers in the year before the

ban. The country once was the third-biggest customer of US beef behind

Japan and Mexico.

 

The agreement is a positive step, but the Bush administration is

" extremely disappointed " in South Korea's restrictions, US Trade

Representative Rob Portman said.

 

" We will continue to urge Korea in the strongest terms to open its

market without delay, " Portman said.

 

Hours after South Korea agreed to accept US beef, Agriculture

Secretary Mike Johanns met in Washington with Japan's minister of

agriculture, Shoichi Nakagawa. Like South Korea, Japan still imposes

restrictions; no US beef is allowed from cows younger than 21 months.

 

Under international standards, US imports should include beef from

animals up to 30 months of age as well as beef ribs. The guidelines

are set by the World Organization for Animal Health in France.

 

Nakagawa said consumers in Japan view US beef as an entirely new

product and that it will take time to reassure them fully. Japan has

stricter standards than world guidelines and cannot make an exception

for the US or any other country, Nakagawa said, speaking through an

interpreter at a news conference with Johanns.

 

Exports to Japan resumed quickly last month. The US has regained about

82 percent of beef export markets worth US$3.9 billion in 2003.

 

Shipments to South Korea should resume by the end of March, South

Korea's government said in a statement on Friday. Officials there want

restrictions on bones out of fear that marrow and other bone tissues

might be dangerous. US officials contend that international guidelines

say those tissues can be safely traded.

 

The medical name for mad cow disease is bovine spongiform

encephalopathy, or BSE. BSE is a degenerative nerve disease in cattle.

It's linked to a rare but fatal nerve disorder in humans, variant

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, believed to be caused by eating meat or

cattle products contaminated with mad cow disease.

 

The US has found two cases of mad cow disease, the first in 2003 in a

Canadian-born cow in Washington state, the second last June in a

Texas-born cow. Japan has found 21 cases of mad cow disease. South

Korea has not found any cases of the disease, according to the World

Organization for Animal Health.