Will Japanese be cowed by US
beef? By Hisane Masaki
TOKYO - American beef will be back on
Japanese tables soon, but making finicky and
cowardly Japanese consumers stomach it will not be
an easy task.
After two days of
teleconference negotiations, Japan and the United
States struck a final deal on Wednesday on lifting
Tokyo's import ban on American beef. Under the
agreement, which provides for strengthened
safeguard measures against mad cow disease, Japan
will begin necessary procedures to reopen its
once-lucrative market to US beef and thereby
remove the largest irritant to otherwise smooth
bilateral trade relations.
In the final
procedural step toward an actual resumption of
imports, Japanese officials from the health and
farm ministries will
be
dispatched soon to inspect all 35 US meatpacking
facilities that export the beef to Japan, as
formally agreed on Wednesday between the two
governments.
Imports of beef will be
permitted only from those facilities that are
confirmed by Japanese inspectors to comply with
strengthened safeguard measures. The inspections
will take nearly one month. American beef will
reach Japanese store shelves and restaurants in
the second half of next month at the earliest.
The Japanese decision to resume American
beef imports comes ahead of Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi's planned visit to the US next
week for talks with President George W Bush, which
will be his last as prime minister, since he will
step down in September when his current term as
president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP) - and hence as premier - expires.
Japanese foreign policymakers had wanted
to see the beef issue settled before the
Koizumi-Bush meeting, apparently out of political
consideration to the Republican president, whose
public approval rating is hovering at very low
levels and faces a rising tide of trade
protectionism in the US Congress in the run-up to
US midterm elections this autumn.
Frustrated by the slow progress toward a
Japanese import resumption, US Agriculture
Secretary Mike Johanns once compared the
re-imposition of the import ban on American beef
to slapping a blanket import ban on Japanese autos
on the grounds that a defect had been found in a
single model. Unless the beef dispute was settled
early, it could develop into a trade war, he
warned.
The US official's warning is not
completely unfounded. On June 20, a bipartisan
group of US senators said they would introduce a
bill requiring the Treasury secretary to impose
punitive tariffs on Japanese goods if Japan failed
to resume imports of US beef by August 31.
In mid-December, Japan lifted a ban on
American beef imports, imposed two years earlier
following the discovery of the first case of mad
cow disease in Washington State.
But only
about one month later, Japan re-imposed the ban
after a backbone was discovered in a veal shipment
at Narita airport. Beef backbones are prohibited
materials under the deal reached between the two
governments before the ban was lifted in
mid-December, because consuming bovine nervous
system tissue can lead to the transmission of mad
cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy
(BES) as the brain-wasting disease is formally
called. At that time, the Japanese government drew
a barrage of criticism for rushing to the
conclusion that US beef was safe.
While
Japan's resumption of imports must be long-awaited
good news for the US government and cattle
industry, it will be very difficult for American
beef to regain the dominant position it once held
in the Japanese market. Despite strengthened US
safeguard measures against mad cow disease, many
Japanese consumers, reasonably or not, remain
strongly wary of the safety of American beef.
Japanese and US officials wrapped up a
pervious round of negotiations in mid-May, but at
the time they failed to set a timetable for the
resumption of the beef trade. In the May
negotiations, the US pushed Japan to resume
exports by the end of June, but Japanese officials
said public meetings must be held first. Japan's
Health and Agriculture ministries held public
hearings in major cities across the country this
month to explain progress made in talks between
the two countries on beef imports and tell
consumers how safety steps would prevent the
importation of American meat infected with mad cow
disease.
When Japan lifted the import ban
in mid-December, actual imports began while
Japanese officials were still inspecting American
meat-processing facilities. Furthermore, the
Japanese inspection did not cover all facilities
that export beef to Japan. This time, however,
actual imports will be made only after inspections
are completed, and all facilities that export beef
to Japan will be covered.
In addition,
Japan and the US agreed that Japanese inspectors
would be allowed to accompany their American
counterparts in conducting surprise inspections of
US meatpacking facilities after Japan resumed
imports. Checks at Japanese entry points, like
ports, will also be stepped up.
But many
Japanese consumers remained far from convinced of
the safety of American beef. Some participants in
the public hearings questioned the efficacy of US
safety measures and claimed an import resumption
would be too early. They even accused Tokyo of
putting a higher priority on pleasing its most
important ally, Washington, than protecting its
own citizens, with one activist labeling the
Japanese government as the "lapdog" of the US.
Some participants in the public hearings
demanded that Washington adopt Japanese safety
standards, which require the testing of every cow
going to market for mad cow disease. Government
officials told the hearings that Tokyo would
respond firmly to any further violations of
Japan's import law by stopping imports from the
disputed facility.
Adding fuel to safety
concerns among Japanese consumers is the spate of
revelations in recent months that bones have been
present in imported American beef in Hong Kong and
Taiwan, in violation of agreements Hong Kong and
Taiwan have reached with the US. In addition,
South Korea said recently that problems have been
found with some US slaughterhouses designated to
process meat bound for South Korea.
South
Korea's import ban is still in place. Seoul agreed
in January to allow American beef into the country
on a limited basis, ending a two-year ban prompted
by mad cow disease fears. But a reopening of what
was formerly the third-largest overseas US beef
market, after Japan and Mexico, has been delayed
over measures to ensure meat safety.
The
latest problems are that some of the 37 US
slaughterhouses designated to handle meat for
exports to South Korea either process American
beef without separating it from foreign beef, or
use tools that were used to slaughter cows that
are 30 months old or older, the South Korean
Agriculture and Forestry Ministry said. South
Korea wants to import only boneless meat from
cattle younger than 30 months old.
Meanwhile, China, along with most Asian
countries, shut its borders to US beef in December
2003 after the first discovery of mad cow disease
in the US. About two months ago, China agreed to
begin buying US beef, but that announcement didn't
specify when trade would resume or under what
terms. US officials said, however, that China
pledged to resume beef imports by June 30. US and
Chinese government officials remain split over how
restrictive Chinese regulations will be on US beef
when trade eventually resumes, the officials said
recently.
In a desperate bid to assuage
lingering consumer fears, Health, Labor and
Welfare Minister Jiro Kawasaki told a news
conference on June 20 that the government would
inspect all beef imported from the US for the time
being after the import ban is lifted.
Meanwhile, Yoshinoya D&C Co plans to
start serving its once signature menu,
beef-over-rice bowls, as early as late September.
Yoshinoya's rivals have turned to Chinese and
Australian beef in the wake of the ban. But
Yoshinoya has taken beef bowls off its menu
altogether, insisting that its signature dish is
not the same without US beef.
Many other
Japanese restaurants and retailers remain
cautious, however, about offering US beef again.
Ito-Yokado Co, a leading Japanese
supermarket-chain operator, does not plan to sell
US beef for the time being even after imports are
resumed. "We do not think customers will approve
if we start selling US beef again," a company
official was quoted as telling a Japanese
newspaper.
Another major retailer, Aeon
Co, said that it would stay on the sidelines and
see how consumers reacted. "We will put consumers'
feelings first when deciding whether we start
selling US beef again," an official was quoted as
saying in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's
biggest business daily.
Aside from safety
concerns among consumers and the caution among
Japanese restaurants and retailers about selling
US beef again, the amount of American beef
imported into the Japanese market will be limited
to only around 30% of the pre-ban levels in 2003
because not all American beef will be allowed into
the Japanese market, according to industry
officials.
Only imports of beef from
cattle aged 20 months or younger are permitted,
and only on condition that all contamination-prone
parts, like brains and spinal cord, be removed.
Cows that can be certified as under 20 months are
estimated to account for less than 10% of all cows
slaughtered in the US for human consumption.
Before the import ban, Japan was the
largest overseas market for US beef, buying about
$1.4 billion worth of it in 2003. In terms of
volume, Japan's imports of American beef totaled
about 250,000 tons annually before the import ban,
accounting for about 45% of the overall Japanese
beef imports and a quarter of the overall Japanese
beef market. Australian beef has filled the gap
created by the absence of American beef.
Pressure for an easing of the Japanese
import conditions, which are stricter than those
stipulated by international guidelines, are
expected to mount in the US in the lead-up to the
mid-term Congressional elections later this year.
US Agriculture Secretary Johanns, who "beefs"
about the Japanese import conditions, has
repeatedly vowed that he will ask Japan to raise
the age limit of the cows to 30 months. Meanwhile,
about 2,000 tons of American beef held up at
Japanese ports since the import ban was reimposed
in January will be allowed to be sold in the
Japanese market.
Mad cow disease has been
found in more than two dozen countries, including
Japan, where a total of about 20 cases have been
found so far. Eating meat products contaminated
with infected tissue is linked to a variant,
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has killed more
than 150 people worldwide, mostly in Britain,
where there was an outbreak in the 1980s and
1990s.
Following the discovery of the
first case of mad cow disease, Japan tested every
domestic cow, and initially demanded that the US
beef up safety inspection of its own animals by
doing the same. The US rejected the demand,
claiming that blanket testing of the huge American
herd was not only costly but scientifically
unnecessary, on the grounds that statistical
sampling of the US herd would provide equivalent
information at vastly less cost.
Hisane Masaki is a Tokyo-based
journalist, commentator and scholar on
international politics and economics. His email
address is yiu45535@nifty.com.
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