Japan must lift US beef curbs

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US senator told Japans ambassador to the United States that Tokyos restrictions on US beef exports are blatantly unfair and should be lifted immediately.
Republican Senator Mike Johanns met with Japanese Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki at the diplomats request and linked the beef dispute to Japanese auto giant Toyotas troubles with dangerous safety defects in the United States.
Johanns, in a video posted on his official website, said he told Fujisaki I would never advocate doing anything to Japan in response to the Toyota situation that Japan has not done to us. But you see, in all candor, that does not speak optimistically for Japans future in US trade, said the senator, who hails from the farm state of Nebraska, hard-hit by Japanese beef restrictions. I want to make very clear that Im not advocating that the US close its borders to Japanese products, never did advocate that. Japan is a valued friend to the United States, said Johanns. But I closed the meeting by telling my friends from Japan that I do intend to push this issue. Everyone recognizes that Japans treatment of our beef is blatantly unfair and its time that its fixed, he said.
Japan banned US beef in December 2003 after the brain-wasting cattle disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was found in a US herd. Japan had until then been the US cattle industrys biggest export market.
The ban nearly grew into a full-blown trade war, with US farm-state senators pressing for sanctions unless Tokyo opened up its markets by the end of 2005. Japan agreed in 2006 to resume US imports on the condition that age and portion limits were imposed on cattle at the time of slaughter. Johanns said there was no scientific justification for the restriction, which he declared was nothing more than an economic sanction.
I asked him (the ambassador) what would happen if the United States said 'we do not want any car parts from Japan until they can promise us that there are absolutely no defects, said the lawmaker.
Thats essentially what theyve done to our beef industry. Such a move would be economically devastating to Japan. I know that, he added.
But I pointed out that their treatment of our beef is economically devastating to my state and to our nations beef industry, Johanns said in the video.