Japan PM wary of early restart of US beef imports

[shugah]

Japan PM wary of early restart of US beef imports

Feb 20, 2006 — By Aya Takada

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed caution about an early resumption of U.S. beef imports on Monday, after the release of a U.S. report on how banned cattle parts got into a shipment of U.S. veal.

~snip~

The U.S. Agriculture Department on Friday issued a report on what went wrong with the shipment, which had prompted Japan to suspend U.S. beef imports on January 20, just a month after it ended a two-year ban on U.S. beef imposed over mad cow disease fears.

~snip~

he remarks came after Kyodo news agency reported that Farm Minister Shoichi Nakagawa told Koizumi the U.S. report was "insufficient."

"I reported that, for the Japanese side, the contents were insufficient," Kyodo quoted Nakagawa as telling reporters after meeting Koizumi.

Before the two-year ban, Japan was the top importer of U.S. beef. In 2003, it imported 240,000 tonnes of U.S. beef valued at $1.4 billion, about one-quarter of total Japanese beef demand.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1640168

[depakid]

1. Um-- yeah...

If they allow USDA "inspected" beef into their country, you can virtually guarantee more problems.

This administration will simply lie and conceal information from them- and for every violation they might catch countless thousands will go through.

God only knows how many Americans have been exposed to BSE. My guess is that it could run into the tens of thousands- maybe more.

[kskiska]

2. Just say "no"

Kozuimi wouldn't dare upset the Boy King, though. Might mean no more trips to the ranch.

[cliss]

3. It just goes to show you how far out on the "fringe" this

administration is. About 2 years ago, US beef had lots of problems. It was the mad cow scare. There were lots of threads here on the DU about it. Japan decided it was too risky to import the beef. In the meantime, the US government was hysterical. They even threatened to sue Japan for not wanting to buy our beef.

So what happens? After 2 years, the ban is lifted....cautiously. The FIRST shipment has cow spines in it.

Again, hysteria and panic. Bush vows he will "take aggressive action" to get the ban lifted.

Are they out of their minds? We know the answer. FREE TRADE is supposed to be just that. A voluntary exchange between two parties. You can't SUE somebody to buy your crap!!!

This is a clear sign that they are maniacs in Washington.

[Art_from_Ark]

4. And Australian ranchers are thanking bu$h

for his hysterical response. Australian beef now makes up most of the beef imported by the largest meat store chain in the Tokyo area.

http://www.hanamasa.co.jp/company/topics/anzen.html

Interestingly enough, the web page mentions American beef but doesn't mention the American beef ban.