12/27/05 Japanese team visits beef plants

American Rancher December 27, 2005 After Japan announced it would again accept some U.S. beef imports, it sent a pair of teams to the U.S. to visit meat packing plants. Martin O' Connor, a USDA official who oversees U.S. beef export verification programs, says the Japanese were auditing those programs to make sure processors are complying with the new rules for beef exports to Japan. O'Connor says it's not known yet what what the teams' findings were. O'Connor: "They are having a meeting the day after Christmas to discuss with their ministers to discuss the findings. We expect feedback fairly soon but we really don't anticipate what their results will be until they have a chance to get back and discuss it." The U.S. is also allowing the resumption of Japanese beef imports here. R-CALF USA doesn't like that given all the cases of BSE Japan has had and its CEO Bill Bullard says they are looking at possible courses of action. Bullard: "This is a final rule so the only recourse the industry now has is either to litigate and challenge the rule in a court of law to demonstrate that it is not based on science. Or to go to Congress and ask Congress to cause the rule to be negated." Bullard says that would be difficult but R-CALF continues to look at the issue because it's closely related to their ongoing challenge regarding Canadian cattle. I'm Bob Hoff.