Posted on: Sunday, October 31, 2004

Japan's plan to resume U.S. beef imports seen as political ploy

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post

TOKYO — Japanese opposition leaders and consumer groups have criticized a tentative agreement to lift a ban on U.S. beef imports, calling it a political gift from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to President Bush before the U.S. election.

The Bush administration announced the accord a week ago and hailed the resumption of some U.S. beef shipments to Japan in "a matter of weeks," but some Japanese officials said imports are unlikely for at least six months.

Japan's 10-month beef ban — imposed after a cow in Washington state was found to have mad cow disease last December — has been a rare problem in U.S.-Japan relations, closing off the single largest foreign market for the $30 billion U.S. cattle industry. After months of unsuccessful talks, Japanese and U.S. officials said they reached a "framework" agreement, and U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary J.B. Penn said last week that some American beef shipments to Japan would resume soon.

But Japanese officials familiar with the agreement offered a less optimistic assessment, saying that the deal imposes no specific deadline to lift the ban and that disputes over inspection guidelines and requirements for public hearings would delay the imports.

Even then, Japan could allow only a fraction of the $1.4 billion worth of U.S. beef imported prior to the ban, officials said.

Since the ban, Japan has turned to Australia for much of its beef, and that trade seems to be thriving.

"It is going to take time before any U.S. beef can come back into Japan," said one high-ranking Japanese government official familiar with the deal. "This is not going to happen that quickly."

U.S. and Japanese officials said that Bush, who has the endorsement and financial backing of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, had asked Koizumi to lift the ban when the two last met, in New York City in September.

Koizumi is facing pressure from Japanese consumer groups, however, to resist U.S. imports until the U.S. government agrees to the same strict inspection requirements that Japanese beef now undergoes. The issue has been especially sensitive in Japan because health officials have found 15 animals with the infection. Japan has for some time required that all cattle be tested for mad cow disease before entering the food supply, and so any change in that position is significant.

Opposition politicians charged that while the agreement leaves Japan's options open, Koizumi was giving Bush the right to claim last-minute progress on an issue dear to battleground states such as Colorado, and to South Dakota, where Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle is battling for re-election.

"This agreement's chief accomplishment is allowing Mr. Koizumi to help out Mr. Bush ahead of the U.S. election," said Muneaki Samejima, a prominent legislator from Japan's opposition Democratic Party. "After the election, there is still no guarantee of when Japan will import U.S. beef again. ... Japan should not interfere in other countries' elections."