Mad cow won’t alter beef ban

TOKYO – Japan’s top government spokesman said Monday the latest confirmed U.S. case of mad cow disease will not affect deliberations on ending a 17-month ban on American beef imports.

Japan was the United States’ largest overseas market for beef before Tokyo banned all U.S. beef imports following the first confirmed U.S. mad cow case in December 2003. Washington has been pressuring it to resume imports, and some U.S. officials have threatened sanctions unless the ban ends.

Taiwanese health officials, meanwhile, refused Monday to order the removal of U.S. beef already on store shelves amid accusations of engaging in “beef diplomacy.”

At the Taipei District Court, lawmakers from the Taiwan Solidarity Union sued Health Minister Ho Sheng-mao, accusing him of risking the deaths of consumers to please Washington – the island’s most important ally – after the cow was confirmed with the brain-wasting disease on Saturday.

Taiwan’s premier, Frank Hsieh, had ordered an immediate ban on all U.S. beef imports on Saturday but didn’t compel stores to remove it from their shelves.

Tokyo has refused to set a time frame for reopening its market, saying differences still remain on safety standards.

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Hiroyuki Hosoda, said Friday’s confirmation of a second U.S. mad cow case itself “will not directly affect” deliberations on reopening Japan’s market to U.S. beef. He said a final decision was instead dependent upon resolving remaining safety issues.

The confirmation by the U.S. Agriculture Department Friday followed a series of conflicting results that prompted Japanese experts to question the accuracy of the U.S. testing procedures.

Japan and the United States struck a deal last fall to resume limited imports of cows younger than 21 months considered less at risk of the disease, but those plans were delayed by a dispute on testing standards used to determine the age of cattle.

Japan’s Food Safety Commission took a key step last month by recommending the government end its domestic policy of blanket testing all cows headed for market. Such an easing would likely allow imports of U.S. beef from cattle younger than 21 months to also resume.

Mad cow disease is also called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. Eating infected beef is thought to cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a fatal brain disorder that has killed more than 150 people, mostly in Britain in the 1990s.