040925 Japan to Discuss Resuming US Beef Imports

Tokyo - Japan and the United States will hold talks early next week on the possibility of Tokyo resuming US beef imports currently banned because of fears over mad cow disease, the farm ministry said.

The Japanese government will send a group of experts and negotiators to the meeting scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Fort Collins, Colorado, the ministry said in a statement.

According to Japanese news reports, Tokyo is considering allowing imports of meat from US cattle 20 months old or younger, even if they have not been tested for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

The statement from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries did not mention this possibility.

Japan, previously the number one export market for US beef, has insisted on testing all US beef imports as a condition for lifting the ban, a demand the United States has so far rejected.

Japan halted the imports in December 2003 after a BSE-infected cow was discovered in Washington state.

The US has already presented a compromise proposal for testing cows aged 24 months and older.

Earlier Friday, the Sankei Shimbun daily reported that senior working-level talks will take place at the end of the month in a bid to break the impasse in bilateral mad cow talks.

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