Vilsack urges Japan to fully reopen beef market+

WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 Kyodo - U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Japanese farm minister Hirotaka Akamatsu on Friday that Tokyo should lift all of its mad cow disease-related controls on U.S. beef imports and fully open its beef market, Akamatsu said.

In their 45-minute meeting, Vilsack said Japan should bring its measures on mad
cow disease into line with international guidelines set by the World
Organization for Animal Health (OIE), allowing imports of all U.S. beef and
beef products derived from animals of all ages deemed safe under the
organization's guidelines, Akamatsu told reporters.
The visiting Japanese minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries said he
told Vilsack Tokyo's stance that the bilateral beef dispute should be addressed
''based on scientific evidence.''
Vilsack's call followed similar action by U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk on
Thursday, who according to his office ''stressed the importance the Obama
administration attaches to securing greater access to Japan's beef market in a
manner that is consistent with science and international standards.''
''Secretary Vilsack emphasized the importance of basing policy on OIE
standards, and Minister Akamatsu expressed his commitment to have food safety
regulations based on scientific knowledge,'' the U.S. Agriculture Department
said in a statement.
''The two countries both agreed to a continuing dialogue on this important
issue. The Japanese market is an extremely important market for America's
farmers, ranchers and exporters and today's meeting marked an important step in
the Obama administration's effort to continue and expand this fruitful
relationship,'' it said.
Japan and the United States are at loggerheads over Washington's insistence
that Tokyo abolish all of its limits on U.S. beef imports for meat coming from
cattle aged 20 months or younger.
Tokyo's ban on U.S. beef imports, introduced in December 2003, was lifted in
December 2005 under certain conditions including the age limit.
But it was reinstated the next month after a veal shipment from the United
States was found to contain part of a backbone, a risk material banned under a
bilateral beef trade agreement.
The ban was again lifted in July 2006 under the same conditions.
Akamatsu said he and Vilsack had agreed to cooperate closely to help conclude
the World Trade Organization's stalled Doha Round of multilateral trade
liberalization talks by the end of next year.
The Japanese minister reiterated Tokyo's goal of sufficiently securing that a
number of ''sensitive'' farm products including rice, sugar and wheat are
exempted from substantial tariff cuts, as well as of strongly objecting to
setting a uniform tariff cap on farm products.
Efforts are under way among WTO members to conclude the Doha Round within 2010,
following the Geneva-based global trade watchdog's failure to achieve progress
in the round since ministerial talks collapsed in July 2008 amid a dispute
between some advanced and emerging economies.
The WTO has pledged to conclude the round within next year. The process, which
aims to support economic growth in poor countries through enhancement of trade,
was launched in 2001 in the Qatari capital and originally scheduled to be
concluded in 2005.
==Kyodo
2009-10-10 22:23:15