U.S. sees progress on beef talks with Japan

WASHINGTON — Prospects are improving for resuming American beef shipments to Japan, a major market that closed in January because of Japanese concerns about mad cow disease.

Talks were to resume Tuesday evening, EDT, U.S. officials said after four hours of video conference discussions earlier.

“We’re trying to finalize an agreement that will put us on a pathway to resuming trade,” Agriculture Department spokesman Ed Loyd said. “Part of our objective is to ensure we don’t have a repeat of what happened in January.”

U.S. beef shipments to Japan were halted after Japanese officials found a veal shipment that contained backbone, which Asian countries consider at risk for mad cow disease. The cuts are eaten in the United States and other countries, but Japan’s rules are stricter.

U.S. negotiators are asking Japan not to halt all beef trade if a similar mistake happens again. If a violation is found, the U.S. wants Japan to restrict shipments only from an individual meatpacking company and not all U.S. processing companies.

Japanese Agriculture Ministry Consumption Safety Director Hiroshi Nakagawa told reporters Tuesday he wants to Japanese inspectors to visit U.S. beef processing plants before making a final decision.

“We will present to the United States what Japan plans to do, what we’d like them to achieve, including snap inspections (of beef processors), then obtain their consent after discussion,” Nakagawa said. “We can move on to a next step if we can ready the measures on each side.”

The talks are being run by Nakagawa and his U.S. Agriculture Department counterpart, Chuck Lambert, deputy under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs.

At stake is a trading relationship worth millions of dollars to the U.S. beef industry. Japan’s market was worth $1.4 billion annually when it banned American beef in response to the first U.S. case of mad cow disease in 2003. The ban had only recently been lifted before Japan halted shipments.