Japan may be ready to talk more beef
Washington Ag Today March 29, 2010 Over six years after a U.S. cow of Canadian origin was found to have BSE, Japan still only allows the import of boneless beef from cattle under 21 months of age from the United States. But there may be movement on conducting productive talks between the two nations that could lead to the full resumption of U.S. beef exports to Japan. USDA Undersecretary Jim Miller. Miller: “We think that when the Secretary travels to Japan in early April and has conversations with the Japanese minister that we may be in the position that they could jointly announce that these negotiations will begin in earnest both at a technical level as well as at a political and policy level.” Miller cautions that any sort of formal agreement between the U.S. and Japan could still be a ways off. Former U.S. Agriculture Secretary and now U.S. Senator Mike Johanns recently questioned how the Japanese would react if we banned imports of Toyotas because of safety issues like they did our beef. Johanns pointed out the U.S. market for Toyotas remained open. Prior to the 2003 BSE discovery Japan was the number one export market for U.S. beef. The newly established Dairy Industry Advisory Committee will meet April 13th to 15th at USDA headquarters in Washington D.C. The advisory committee was chartered to review farm milk price volatility and dairy farmer profitability. The panel will make recommendations to the Ag Secretary on how USDA can best address these issues to meet the dairy industry’s needs. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network. ? ?
