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Japan-US impasse over lifting mad cow
ban
By Richard Hanson
TOKYO -
It's time to politicize mad-cow disease and seek a
diplomatic solution, ending both the Japanese ban on
United States beef and the US ban on Japanese beef.
Prospects are not bright.
"The US government is
the only one who can set the rules," a Japanese Foreign
Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday. "Rules should be
implemented at the place where the beef is processed."
He said the ban would be lifted "if the Japanese
government finds the rules acceptable".
Japan
has banned all US beef and beef products since late last
month, when the US announced an infected animal had been
discovered in Washington state. And since September
2001, the US has banned Japanese beef because a few
mad-cow cases were discovered.
The imbalance
between the two markets is huge and the pressing issue
right now is Japan's ban on US beef.
Japan is
the biggest market for US beef, buying one-quarter of
the latter's exports last year. By contrast, Japan's own
beef exports are small and - to reassure consumers -
Japan tests every slaughtered animal for bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly called mad-cow
disease. It is a fatal brain illness that can infect
humans.
A recent round of talks in Tokyo failed
to resolve the problem and persuade Japan to lift the
ban. Tokyo has insisted that all slaughtered animals, at
least those for export to Japan, must be tested, though
how much flexibility Japan has is not yet known. US
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman rejects the
full-testing position, saying there is "no scientific
basis" to test all 35 million cattle slaughtered every
year in the United States.
Japan now bans beef
exports from 23 countries where the disease has been
confirmed, including Canada and the United Kingdom. None
of the countries follows the rigorous Japanese model and
conducts full-scale testing of all slaughtered animals.
Now there's an impasse. Talks are expected to
resume early next month, but the situation is not
expected to improve. Officially, the Japanese government
puts the onus for lifting the ban on US agriculture
policy and US beef.
A diplomatic solution to
beef imbroglio?
So politicizing mad-cow disease
and seeking a diplomatic solution could be the answer.
Why?
For one thing, the last thing any cow at
risk for the disease wants to see is another nasty human
trade war - a prospect that no one seems to favor - over
a dilemma that has been described as bovine terrorism.
Another reason is that both Japan and the United
States have been displaying a dangerous degree of
discomfort over each other 's hardline positions to
date. Japan banned US beef after a Canadian-born cow was
found to have BSE. Its herd-mates were being tracked and
cattle have been slaughtered. The disease is believed to
infect animals through infected feed products.
(By comparison to the beef imbroglio, getting
pacifist Japan to send troops to Iraq to aid the US in a
"humanitarian" effort was relatively easy. Polls even
show popular support rising somewhat for that non-combat
battle.)
Given the apparently intractable
positions in Japan and the United States, Beef War
pacifists were cringing last week when a phalanx of
top-ranking US Department of Agriculture (USDA)
officials failed in talks with Japanese officials to
persuade Japan to lift its import ban on US beef.
Although talks will resume next month, observers
fear this next round of negotiations will also fail to
allay fears and restore the beef business. Still, unless
the two sides come up with some novel ideas, beef trade
with Japan will languish, making restoration much more
difficult.
Asia Times Online has learned that
the Japanese government has stepped up its diplomatic
efforts to head off a developing political tug-of-war
between Tokyo and Washington. Details are not known, but
almost everyone agrees that efforts so far have produced
little agreement.
Japan sees unresolved
problems in US
Today, about one month after the
discovery of the diseased cow, the USDA has not been
able to resolve a number of key issues surrounding the
BSE problem. An Associated Press report over the weekend
cited outstanding issues:
Agriculture officials still lack a full accounting
of US meat that was recalled after the discovery of the
mad cow a month ago.
USDA plans to test cattle for BSE, though affecting
twice as many animals as last year, are far below the
minimum levels recommended by the Paris-based World
Organization for Animal Health.
What is more
troublesome is that the USDA doesn't have the political
or administrative clout to deal effectively with the
biggest part of the problem.
The major issue
appears to be Japan's insistence that the US testing of
cattle for safety against BSE meets Japan's ultra-strict
standards - Japan tests all cattle that are slaughtered.
It was not known whether Japan was insisting on testing
of animals to be exported to Japan, or all animals - a
non-starter from the US point of view.
Japan's 'test all' demand a non-starter for
US
US negotiators have been frustrated by this
"test all" position. This stance is a highly political
matter for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who needs
the support of the domestic farm industry as a key
election for the Upper House of the Diet, or parliament,
approaches this July. He also is saying that Japan must
take more precautions with its own beef.
"To
allow imports of beef from a country where BSE is
confirmed, it is necessary that the same measures be
taken in Japan to secure safety and peace of mind, such
as removal of specified risk materials, and inspection
on all cows must be implemented," Koizumi repeatedly has
told the current parliamentary session.
That is
where some government officials who work closely with
the US and Canada on diplomatic matters see the need to
go beyond that official mantra of heightened scrutiny in
a nation where scrutiny of beef safety is already very
high.
"The goal is to resume the beef trade,"
said one official, speaking on condition he not be
identified by name. What may be encouraging is that
there are signs that Japan's conservative farm
regulators would consider a solution. This could involve
a "special program", such as a separate route for beef
bound for Japan. This way US beef could be exported to
Japan, but only if the United States could meet certain
criteria demanded by the Japanese government.
Japan is insisting on a clear explanation of the
cause of the BSE outbreak, the steps taken to prevent
other cases, and the rules under which beef exports
would be made. Japan would review this information
before making a decision.
On the US side, major
companies are understandably keen to resume exports to
Japan.
What is needed is to find a way out that
will put in place certain mechanisms that assure the
safety of beef. To the US side, that may sound like more
foot-dragging, but the Americans have yet to come up
with a credible as well as diplomatic solution.
As things stand now, the two sides are waiting
for something to tip the scales.
Japan's
experts: Can't rule out more US mad cow
On the
Japanese side, a fact-finding mission returned last week
from a tour of the United States and Canada. The
five-person team concluded that conditions did not rule
out further cases of BSE in the US. This bad news was
announced in a press conference a couple of days before
talks with the USDA opened in Tokyo, and the subsequent
discussions understandably made no progress. Eventually,
the Japanese team will make a detailed report.
On the USDA side, a report is expected from a
group of international experts on BSE. US delegates said
they would try to lift the import ban when talks reopen
next month. That would appear to be a gloomy gathering,
unless someone can devise a breakthrough. And that will
be tough.
Any sort of program that gets the beef
moving again would have to conform to the rules of the
World Trade Organization (WTO), a much maligned
organization these days, since agricultural issues have
stalled trade talks.
What this means is that any
plan to approve the export of beef to Japan by a
BSE-infected nation would apply equally to all WTO
member countries, on a most-favored-nation basis -
meaning all would be treated equally.
In theory,
that could cover countries such as Canada, whose beef
exports were banned by most countries last May when
animal-health officials found that country's first
BSE-infected cow in the province of Alberta. A US
investigation confirmed that the infected cow found in
Washington state had been born in Alberta.
Japan
would also seek a lifting of the ban on its own exports
of beef, which is still enforced by the US after a
limited outbreak in September 2001 and rapid, drastic
steps to contain it.
In a sign of just how badly
diplomacy has been neglected, one US official said the
US import ban on Japanese beef continues "because no one
has asked that it be lifted".
As by far the most
important exporter of beef to Japan, the United States
would benefit most from a deal. In Japan too there is
growing dissatisfaction in the food-services industry
over the ban. Before the ban, US beef and beef products
provided about 30 percent of Japan's beef supply,
ranking second after Australia. That was worth about
US$3.2 billion last year.
Just how much
diplomacy that will buy in a difficult political climate
is hard to say.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times
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