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More on the mad mad cow mess - and
Mexico
By Richard Hanson
TOKYO
- Late last year, the United States, the world's largest
beef consumer, abruptly joined the not so clubby gang of
mad cow nations - subjected to the uncomfortable
position of beef pariah among countries that have
discovered even one case of mad cow disease. Most
painful: Virtually every beef-eating country in the
world has slapped bans on imports of American beef and
beef products.
In the bovine spongiform
encelphalopahy (BSE) world, getting back isn't easy, as
officials from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)
have found. For now, the way back is barred in Japan,
once America's largest, and by far most lucrative beef
product market. Just as tightly closed to imports is
Mexico, just south of the US border.
The USDA
first took aim at restoring its place in the Japanese
market, though with no luck. Japan refuses to import
American beef unless the US government meets its very
stringent - some say excessive - domestic beef
consumption safety standards. Most onerous is that Japan
itself conducts tests for BSE in all cattle that go to
the slaughter house and on to the consumer. The US
considers blanket testing unrealistic, unnecessary and
too costly.
US-Japan talks were held in late
January in an effort to figure out how to reopen trade,
but no agreement was reached. The US said it would take
proposals to the next meeting, which has yet to be
scheduled, though informed speculation about early
February failed to pan out.
In the meantime, the
US is conducting intensive talks with Mexico to re-open
that import market. The USDA sees some progress in those
talks. Here's the rub:
Japan might reject
Mexican beef exports
Asia Times Online has
learned that any bilateral agreement reached by the US
and Mexico over the importation of beef could trigger a
protectionist reaction from Japan and other countries
that maintain an import ban on beef from the US.
In the worst case, that could mean restrictions
placed on Mexican exports to Japan and other countries,
to protect against any leakage of US beef through
Mexican export channels.
Welcome to the world of
BSE the Superpower. Let's look at how the US, Japan and
now Mexico are coping with the disease.
If you
want know how to salvage the BSE-sunken US-Japan beef
trade, it might be good to keep your eye on Mexico. And
don't lose sight of Japan's latest mad cow.
Having run into a veritable block of chilled
beef in trying to argue a weak scientific case for
re-opening beef imports to Japan - America's biggest
export beef market until December 23 last year - the
USDA has concentrated its efforts on Mexico, which of
course was America's second-largest beef market.
US farmers are looking for a breakthrough. USDA
undersecretary J B Penn, who was in Tokyo at the end of
January, said that the US now has answered all of
Mexico's questions on BSE safety measures and a
compilation of that data is being made. Therefore, he
said, the US will have no further obstacles in
convincing Mexico to lift its ban on American beef.
No direct link to Japan there, but the US is
putting up its best arguments for Mexico to take US beef
in the hope that Mexico could prompt re-entry into the
Japanese market, even if indirectly.
US hopes
Mexico could help open Japan's door
Officials
from Japan and Mexico, later this week and again in
early March, are planning to make concessions to each
other over agricultural issues, including exports of
Mexican juice, chicken, pork and beef to Japan. This is
supposed to be the last leap in order to complete a
long-pending accord to sign a Free Trade Agreement.
Some in the US beef industry see this as part of
a plan to re-open the Mexican market to American beef,
as a step to re-opening the Japanese market.
As
such, a high-level Mexican delegation will be given a
tour of three of America's most modern slaughterhouses -
two in Texas and one in Colorado owned by Tyson, Cargill
and Swift, the biggest US beef exporters to the world,
and to Japan before the BSE outbreak. These companies
want to convince Mexico they satisfy the highest safety
standards.
Japan, however, might have a more
difficult time convincing the world its beef is safe.
During the weekend, Japanese health officials confirmed
the nation's 10th case of mad cow disease.
Japan discovers its own mad cow
On
Saturday, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare took
charge of the investigation as soon a nearly
eight-year-old Holstein dairy cow was identified as a
possible BSE victim in Hiratsuka, a bedroom community in
the sprawling prefecture of Kanagawa west of Tokyo.
The signs were clear. The cow had trouble
standing from a dislocated hip and a broken leg. The
mandatory initial screening was done at the
slaughterhouse. According to a report, the health
ministry and prefectural officials didn't find some of
the typical signs of the disease such as sensory
problems.
But a preliminary test conducted at a
prefectural institute found the cow positive for the
disease. A sample was sent to the National Institute of
Infectious Diseases, where more testing, including
advanced western blotting, was done.
The tests
concluded it was highly likely the animal was infected
with the brain-wasting illness. BSE Case No 10 had a lot
in common with six of the other nine cases identified
since September 2001, including the cows' ages - they
were all born around March 1996.
Kanagawa's
first mad cow had been discovered in June 2003. Farm
inspectors are checking the health of 63 other milk cows
on the same farm.
What these six cows all had in
common was pinpointed by an official government inquiry
into the causes of BSE in Japan. They concluded that all
of the spring 1996 birthday cows are suspected of having
been fed meat and bone meal tainted with BSE.
This report by the BSE Epidemiological
Investigation Team was published about one week before
its finding was made redundant. In early October, BSE No
8 was found followed at the end of October by BSE No 9.
Japan still demands rigorous US
testing
Lobbying Japan so far produced no meeting
of minds. Japan refused to consider re-opening US
imports unless the US tested its cattle for BSE in some
way equivalent to the way Japan does. The American's
arrived at a bad time.
A Japanese BSE
fact-finding delegation had just returned from a lengthy
(by quick-study standards) tour of the US, including
Washington State (home of America's first BSE case) and
Canada's Alberta province, where Canada's first mad cow
was found and, as it turned out, the US mad cow was
born.
When they returned, the fact-finders
reported their opinion that the US was likely to find
more BSE cases, which could also be said of Japan or any
country that has already experienced the disease among
its cattle. The meeting ended with the USDA officials
saying that they would return. The impression was left
that this might take place before the end of February.
That is no longer the game plan, for at least
two reasons.
On the one hand, there has been a
significant shift in thinking with the US beef industry
itself, which has become much more amenable to
compromise over the conditions that might enable Japan
to accept a re-opening of imports of beef from the US -
and other BSE-banned former suppliers of beef. These
compromises involve all parties accepting new approaches
to end the ban.
From the US beef industry, there
has been some rather detailed thinking along the lines
of exporting only low-risk beef - very young, 18-24
months old and free from specified risk materials such
as spinal column material.
The other large issue
is over the issue of testing cattle for BSE. There
appears to be little room for compromise between the two
governments. About the only possibly bright scenario
would be for the US and Mexico to come up with a set of
import standards that would look attractive to Japan.
"We are all trying to work toward opening the
import market," said one Japanese observer "but we will
take necessary measures to prevent American beef from
finding its way into our market."
That is why
Mexico looms large.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times
Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
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