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US to ask Japan to Lift Mad Cow Ban

By Bill Marler

Two U.S. congressmen have jointly presented a resolution calling on Japan to fully reopen its beef market to imports from the United States, Jerry Moran, one of the lawmakers said Thursday.

''It is time for Japan to fully open its markets to U.S. beef,'' said Moran, a Republican from Kansas. ''For several years now, Japan has used nonscientific standards to restrict access to high-quality U.S. beef products,'' he said.

The resolution was jointly introduced recently with Roy Blunt, a Republican from Missouri.

''Japan asks for fair treatment of their products and we are asking for the same fair treatment -- which means an adherence to internationally recognized, science-based trade standards,'' Moran said.

The release came ahead of a planned visit to Japan by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on April 5-9. Vilsack has said he will travel to Tokyo to ''increase export opportunities'' for U.S. farmers and ranchers.

''It is disappointing that a close ally like Japan insists on pursuing this unfair, damaging and ill-advised trade policy that not only hurts American cattlemen, but also Japanese consumers, who have always spoken clearly with their wallets in favor of American beef,'' Moran added.

Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of senators also submitted a similar resolution.

In addition, some observers say U.S. President Barack Obama's recent announcement of the doubling of U.S. exports over the next five years adds pressure on Tokyo to lift its restrictions on U.S. beef imports.

Japan and the United States are at loggerheads over Washington's insistence that Tokyo abolish its ban on imports of U.S. beef from cattle aged over 20 months.

Japan suspended all beef imports from the United States after the first U.S. case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease, was found in 2003. It later partially reopened the beef market with certain restrictions.

Full post as published by Mad Cow Blog on March 27, 2010 (boomark / email).