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Japan will stop imports of US beef Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000082&sid=afCH26H3hxCs&refer=canadahttp://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000082&sid=afCH26H3hxCs&refer=canada
Koizumi Says Japan Will Stop Imports of U.S. Beef (Update2)
Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Japan will stop importing beef from the U.S., Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said, following a report that the meat may have arrived in the country with cattle parts that can transmit mad cow disease.
``I heard from the agriculture minister just now that we will stop importing beef from the U.S.,'' Koizumi said. ``It's disappointing as we just started'' importing. Koizumi told reporters in Tokyo that he had given directions to the country's agriculture minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, and health minister, Jiro Kawasaki, to take ``appropriate measures.''
Japan lifted a two-year ban on U.S. and Canadian beef imports in December, paving the way for meatpackers including Tyson Foods Inc. and Cargill Inc. to reclaim a share of a $1.7 billion market. That move bolstered the shares of Tyson Foods, the world's largest beef processor, and cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Japan was the biggest buyer of U.S. beef before the ban in 2003.
South Korea lifted its ban on U.S. beef this month.
A U.S. meat-processing facility is suspected of having shipped to Japan beef with spinal cord, which is among the bovine body parts designated as risk materials for mad cow disease, Kyodo News reported, citing the agriculture minister.
Japan's Food Safety Commission ruled in November that the risk of mad-cow disease in U.S. beef was ``very small,'' provided certain conditions were met. Those included that imported U.S. beef comes from cattle no older than 20 months and that spinal cords, brains and other parts of cattle blamed for spreading the human variant of mad-cow disease are removed.
Safety
Japan's agricultural minister told Koizumi ``it's extremely important to secure food safety and Japan will request the U.S. to respond,'' Koizumi told reporters today.
Mad cow disease is a brain-wasting livestock illness that scientists say is spread in cattle by tainted animal feed. Eating contaminated meat from infected animals can cause a fatal human variant that has been blamed for the deaths of 151 people in the U.K., where it was first reported in the 1980's.
The U.S. Meat Federation in Tokyo said a public relations official wasn't in the office to respond to Japan's decision. Calls to the press attache at the U.S. Embassy were not answered.
More than 60 countries banned U.S. beef after a single mad- cow case was found in Washington state in December 2003. U.S. beef exports plunged to 434 million pounds in 2004 from a record 2.5 billion pounds in 2003. Australian producers stepped in to replace lost supplies in Japan, grabbing 89 percent of the imported beef market.
Last Updated: January 20, 2006 07:25 EST
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