AFX - Asia | January 23, 2004
Japanese and US officials said they ended a day of talks without agreeing on the conditions needed to lift Tokyo's ban on US beef imports, imposed after the discovery of mad cow disease in the US.
No date has been set for the next meeting, an official at the Japanese farm ministry said, while the US side said they agreed to meet again some time next month.
"I wouldn't say we should procrastinate but we have to make thorough checks because this issue involves safety and confidence," Ryosuke Ogawa, director at the Food Safety and Consumer Affairs Bureau of the ministry, told Agence France-Presse.
"The ball is in the US court."
He said it was the first "face-to-face" meeting between US and Japanese bureaucrats since the first US case of mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was confirmed last month.
The US Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, J.B. Penn, told reporters Washington wanted to resume trade as soon as possible and reassure Japanese consumers that US beef is safe.
"We want to assure consumers both in Japan and consumers in the United States that we continue to have a very safe, highly effective food regulatory system, and we certainly want to assure Japanese consumers of the safety of US beef."
Japan, the largest export market for US beef, was among the first of more than 30 nations to ban beef imports after the discovery of the first case of mad cow disease there.AFX - Asia:
