07/24/06 Update on Japan and beef

07/24/06 Update on Japan and beef

American Rancher July 24, 2006 When will Japan reopen, at least partially, to U.S. beef again? Berman: "If all goes well I can say, certainly in early August." That's the U.S. Agricultural Counselor to Japan, Dan Berman, speaking Friday afternoon. Media reports late last week were citing a Japanese news agency as saying Japan would announce the reopening of its market to U.S. beef this week. Berman's comments came as a post-meat plant audit meeting with Japanese officials was taking place in Omaha, Nebraska. The Japanese had just concluded their audits of U.S. meat processing plants. Berman: "The audits have gone relatively. We are not expecting any big negative surprises. We have a very high level team of USDA people in Omaha to meet with the Japanese and the outcome of this meeting, if it is positive, will be the last major hurdle and the suspension will be lifted shortly after that." Of course BSE is what is behind all this and Berman comments on the timing of last week's USDA announcement that it will soon be scaling back its expanded surveillance testing program. Berman: "There was no really good time to do that. If we had announced it after the market had opened that also would have been problematic. So I think we just have to operate on the basis of the best science we have and explain the basis of our decision." Japanese officials have said the decision by USDA to scale back BSE testing would not impact their decision on reopening Japan to beef from cattle 20 months of age and under. I'm Bob Hoff.
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