Reports about a beef export breakthrough next month with Japan may be overly optimistic, say Canadian officials.
“We are still hoping for mid-December but there is nothing firm,” said Lotte Ellesgard of the Canada Beef Export Federation on Oct. 31.
A special prion research committee under Japan’s Food Safety Commission concluded beef and beef offal from cattle from Canada and the United States aged up to 20 months are “very low” risk if materials including brains, spinal cords and other nerve tissue that could transmit BSE are properly removed.
Read Also
Going beyond “Resistant” on crop seed labels
Variety resistance is getting more specific on crop disease pathogens, but that information must be conveyed in a way that actually helps producers make rotation decisions.
The commission is seeking public comments on its report for four weeks before finalizing the recommendation. Upon approval from the commission, the Japanese government is expected to immediately resume imports of beef and beef offal from U.S. and Canadian cattle younger than 20 months.
“They have a process to go through and part of that is this public comment period and then the paperwork,” Ellegard said.
Representatives from the export federation have been travelling throughout Asia to present Canada’s case. Steps to return to the Japanese market have taken longer than exporters hoped, said John Masswohl of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association in Ottawa.
“It is a positive step that happened but there are more steps to come,” he said.
The committee said it is scientifically difficult to verify and compare North American and Japanese beef standards, but it believes the risks of BSE are very low.
“We have been expecting and hoping they would reach that conclusion for a number of months now so they finally have done that,” Masswohl said.
The Japanese draft report also introduced some negative opinions. Some panel members doubt the effectiveness of North American measures to remove beef parts likely infected with the disease. They also call for a ban on using those parts in livestock feed and question whether there is sufficient number of examiners at meat processing.
“Our conclusion would collapse unless the prerequisites were fully observed,” said Yasuhiro Yoshikawa, the University of Tokyo professor who heads the prion research group.
Reuters reports Japanese consumer groups, concerned about the safety of U.S. beef, have said they would launch a campaign to boycott American beef if the government decides to restart imports.
Nearly 70 percent of Japanese people surveyed are opposed to resuming U.S. beef imports while 20 percent are in favour, said a poll published in the last week of October.
A bipartisan group of 21 U.S. senators introduced a bill last week urging the U.S. administration to impose punitive tariffs worth $3.14 billion annually on Japanese products by Dec. 31 if Japan fails to end the import restriction by Dec. 15.
The beef issue is expected to be high on the agenda in talks between Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. president George Bush on Nov. 16 in Kyoto.
