Japan Refuses to Lift Ban on U.S. Beef Imports

[kskiska]

US attempts to reassure the rest of the world over the safety of America's beef after the discovery of its first case of BSE were dealt a major blow last night when Japan refused to discuss lifting its ban on imports with a delegation of agriculture officials from Washington.

The delegation, led by David Hegwood, a trade adviser to the agriculture secretary, Ann Veneman, had hoped to persuade Japan - the world's biggest market for US beef - to end the restriction, introduced last week after a four-year-old Holstein cow in Washington state was found to be infected with the disease.

But the Americans were rebuffed. Japanese officials said it was too soon to talk about lifting the ban, despite US assurances that it would soon introduce stricter safety checks on beef exports.

"I told them that safety issues come first," an agriculture ministry official, Hiroshi Nakagawa, told reporters. Instead, Japan proposed sending its own delegation to Washington early next month to learn more about the case.

The US delegation reportedly said it was dissatisfied with Japan's stance, and insisted its beef was safe.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,7369,1113861,00.html

[goforit]

1. Bush needs to send Baker. Baker will make them eat beef

Baker can do anything.

LOL!!!!(sarc)

[0007]

5. Hilarious!.....and if Baker can't, then Kissinger will, 'eh?

[tom_paine]

19. Baker will explain he fixed the election for Smirky*

Thus the Japanese should let Imperial Amerikan beef in or Baker would start working on THEM.

That Baker, he has as much clout as Heydrich, at least...

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. When are we invading?

Maybe trade sanctions

George suck it up, NOBODY and I mean NOBODY will open their markets
UNTIL they believe that our beef is safe

And for this to occurr we will need to do many things that the beef
lobby DOES NOT WANT TO DO... save two cents huh?

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. The Japanese don't trust U.S. businessmen.

I can't imagine why?

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. Japan tests EVERY cow destined for human consumption - hmmm

.
.
.Japan's Mad Cow Experience Means Tough Sell for U.S. Officials Eager to Lift Import Ban

By Gary Schaefer Associated Press Writer
Published: Dec 29, 2003

"TOKYO (AP) - Stunned by its first case of mad cow disease two years ago, Japan spent tens of millions of dollars winning back consumer confidence with a system to test every cow for the brain-wasting illness before slaughter."

/snip/ . . (If Japan can do this , Why not the USA ? - I know, Koprate Greed comes to mind)

"Japan had to equip about 120 meat hygiene-inspection centers with testing kits imported from France and increase the number of inspectors, spending about $65 million in the first two years of the program just on testing and upgrading facilities, according to the Health Ministry. "

/snip/

"The most recent confirmed infection was in November and involved the youngest-ever animal, a 21-month-old bull. It strengthened the case for those who argue for testing of animals younger than 30 months, and officials say the tighter screening system has done its job - keeping meat from infected animals from finding its way onto dinner plates.

"This is how Japanese beef regained the trust of consumers after the BSE scare here," the Asahi newspaper said in an editorial last week. "It will not be possible to resume U.S. imports while consumer anxiety lingers."

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGACLR2WSOD.html

I think the USA just got "told" .

And like I said above, if Japan can do this, there is no excuse for the USA or ANY other country not doing these checks

[candy331]

6. Does a body good to

see someone act with common sense. How presumptuous for the US to even think that other countries would act against their own self interest on this issue. The US does not have all the facts so I would have thought the most logical thing to do was to wait for fact finding completion.

Thanks again for spell check!

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Wow! We promise to do better...

and they say wait till we actually do better.

And they're the bad guys, eh?

Who woulda thought there might be someone out there who took safety issues seriously?

[Toucano]

8. The rational plan vs. The Bush plan

The rational plan:

1. Calm the worried American public with facts about the disease to ease fear without condescending.
2. Make additional funds available immediately to hire people to track down the contaminated meat.
3. Track down the source of the contamination that infected the animals.
4. Increase funding to inspection and enforcement of existing laws.
5. Create new laws to improve the safety through a state-of-the-art tracking system (without outsourcing the work overseas).
6. Trade embargoes are lifted when confidence is restored.

The Bush plan:

1. Lie to the American public and down-play the significance of the problem.
2. Dispatch a team of trade negotiators to Japan to strong-arm, threaten, and give incentives or concessions to persuade the Japanese to put the safety of their citizens at risk in order to protect corporate interests.
3. Take another vacation.


It is such a comfort to know that our pResident has such deep religious conviction, coupled with a volcano of patriotism, to see clearly what must be done to promote the general welfare, secure the blessings of liberty, and provide for the common defense of those who really matter! Effing Chimp-faced Prick!

[salin]

18. you forgot one step of the bush plan

plant a story that they issue is being hyped (re: exaggerated/made up) by the organic food industry to increase their sales. {Read that one in a national news wire story in the local paper, last week.}

[cliss]

20. Awesome post,DR.

I forgot all about BeelzeBush's "deep religious conviction" which of course overrides any other obligations he may have.

Such a principled man. I couldn't have said it better (and believe me, I TRY).

[Manix]

9. If Baker gets involved the official may find a horse's head

in his bed!!

[Mikimouse]

10. Or, perhaps...

a horses' ass in the WH?

[Zech Marquis]

11. they sure did tell the US to shove it

I was speaking to my gf's sister last night, and she asked if Japan could ever say NO to the US demands--for bases, beef, cars, etc. I simply showed her the news article and she nearly passed out. To many Japanese, saying NO to the US is a deeply hiden desire--after 60 some years of being a stooge, it IS about time for Japan to be able to act on its own.

[54anickel]

12. Good for them! I am very concerned about what Shrub will do to US!

I am sure that torte reform of his will become a top priority to protect the cattle companies that have been making cannibals of their cattle despite the '97 ban.

There will probably be a ban on importing SAFE beef to the US as well.

Investigations into how many of these "mad cows" the public has already ingested will be stalled and covered up.

Whatelse will the little weasel do to us?

[lebkuchen]

13. Why should they, when they can get grass-fed beef from S. America?

Argentinian Steak House, you rock!

[htuttle]

14. Japanese culture has always been a bit leery of beef to begin with

Long ago, it was considered an 'unclean' food. In fact, when beef started coming into Japan from Korea (2nd century AD or so?), beef-lovers were generally forced to cook the beef outside on a plow blade instead of in the kitchen. Sukiyaki, in fact, means something like 'plow cooking'.

So it's probably not that hard to turn them off our beef. Especially when it's tainted...

This Discovery Minute was brought to you by...all the pointless trivia piled up in my brain over the last 40 years.

[oneighty]

15. Pointless trivia

Daijobe...Spell check that!

180

Edit..Post passed the spell test! How can that be?

Hee! Hee!

[Art_from_Ark]

21. Sukiyaki and beef

Sukiyaki contains not only beef, but also lots of vegetables. It is my understanding that the term originated from the fact that the ingredients included not only the plants grown by the plow, but also the animal pulling it.

The real issue with eating beef in Japan was, who was going to kill the animal? Apparently, Japanese Buddhism at the time didn't have problems with killing and eating lesser animals like fish and shrimp, but when it came to land animals like cattle, there was a tremendous stigma attached to butchering. Thus developed the class of "unclean" known as the "burakumin" who were forced to live in their own kind of ghetto and given the thankless task of butchering livestock. This class system lasted in one form or another until around the end of WWII.

As far as being turned off to American beef goes, it is not an anti-American reaction, just a typical Japanese reaction to news of possible contamination of imported food. Japan would have taken these measures regardless of where the beef came from.

[Zech Marquis]

22. ding ding ding ding!

Yeah, you hit it on the head my friend :bounce:

Now I've lived in Japan, you're in Japan, so we both know that the japanese government is, how shal I say this, not exactly user friendly :evilgrin: BUT when it comes to weeding out problems in their food supply, such as the mad cow incident there, they don't fool around! Same with tainted blood or other medicine products--if they find out such a d such is making people sick and/or die, that product and the company making it is GONE. And, when such scandal hits a japanese company, the CEO and his stooges will give a formal apology in PUBLIC-- lots of tears, lots of bowing, and lots of "moushi wake arimasendeshita". I wish Ken Lay and Unca Dick would have to do that for Enron and Halliburtin :evilgrin:

Naaww, a good old fashioned hara kirir ceremony sounds better!

[Art_from_Ark]

23. *Off topic to Zech*

Check your e-mail. “ú–{‚Å‚Ì—¯Šw‚ɂ‚¢‚Ă̘b‚Å‚·�B

[leanstreets23]

16. Japan's public health policy

is not quite as privatized as dynasty-impaired America's, still actually
adminsters to the public's health. Also, HIV recently found its way into
the emergency blood supply, caught hell through subsequent litigation.

Japan's green light may be a litmus test for true progress.

[mbperrin]

17. What!? Didn't they get the word that it's a Canuck

cow who snuck over the border without a green card? Or something!?
Gosh, imagine being concerned about the health of one's citizens over some corporation's profits!

(Check out virtually any story on mad cow and it's never about the health risk, but how much money will either be lost by companies or have to be spent by the government to bail them out for doing a crappy job or both!)

[leanstreets23]

24. Also, Japan's agribusiness (mostly small farmers)

have inordinate say in legislative tilt, versus city dwellers' concerns. Farmers fight
imports generally, so dysfunctional policy abroad will be spotlighted as it puts
Japanese at risk. Dismissed in post-progressive US as everyday abuse of low-tier
taxpayers -- who can't afford pedigreed beef and don't vote anyway -- this may be
used in Tokyo to fuel scepticism toward b*sh-poodle Koizumi, incentive to grow
domestic sourcing, shift to imports from non-US sources.