WASHINGTON -- U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Friday told Japanese farm minister Hirotaka Akamatsu that Tokyo should lift all of its mad cow disease-linked controls on U.S. beef imports and fully open its beef market, Akamatsu said.
In their 45-minute meeting, Vilsack said Japan should bring its measures on mad cow dis-ease into line with international guidelines set by the World Organization for Animal Health, allowing imports of all U.S. beef and beef products derived from animals of all ages deemed safe under the organization's guidelines, Akamatsu told reporters.
The visiting Japanese minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries said he explained to Vilsack Tokyo's stance that the bilateral beef dispute should be addressed "based on scien-tific evidence."
Vilsack's call followed similar action by U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk on Thursday, who according to his office "stressed the importance the Obama administration attaches to securing greater access to Japan's beef market in a manner that is consistent with science and international standards."
Japan and the United States are at loggerheads over Washington's insistence that Tokyo abolish all of its limits on U.S. beef imports for meat coming from cattle aged 20 months or younger.
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Tokyo's ban on U.S. beef imports, introduced in December 2003, was lifted in December 2005 under certain conditions including the age limit.
But it was reinstated the following month after a veal shipment from the United States was found to contain part of a backbone, a risk material banned under a bilateral beef trade agreement.
The ban was again lifted in July 2006 under the same conditions.
Akamatsu said he and Vilsack had agreed to cooperate closely in helping to conclude the World Trade Organization's stalled Doha Round of multilateral trade liberalization talks by the end of next year.
Efforts are under way among WTO members to conclude the Doha Round within 2010, fol-lowing the Geneva-based global trade watchdog's failure to achieve progress in the round since ministerial talks collapsed in July 2008 amid a dispute between some advanced and emerging economies.
