U.S. admits shipping banned beef to Japan

CBC.ca
Feb. 18, 2006

"Quite the opposite happened. It very clearly indicates they were just not connecting as to what could be shipped into the Japanese market."

So it is fine for other "markets"... How reassuring...The United States took responsibility on Friday for shipping veal containing spinal material to Japan last month, violating a U.S.-Japan trade agreement.

In a report it hopes will persuade Japan to resume importing American beef, agriculture officials said a New York plant shipped prohibited veal because workers and inspectors didn't understand trade rules.

"This was not a situation where somebody was trying to hide something," said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, releasing the results of two separate investigations.

"Quite the opposite happened. It very clearly indicates they were just not connecting as to what could be shipped into the Japanese market."

Japan suspended imports on Jan. 20 because the veal contained backbone, which Asian countries consider at risk for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease.

The suspension in January came just a month after Japan lifted a two-year ban on imports from the United States and Canada.

Japan banned imports of Canadian beef in May 2003, when the first case of BSE in a Canadian-born animal was confirmed.

The ban on U.S. beef followed in December that year, after an infected Canadian-born animal was found in Washington state. The United States discovered its first case of BSE in an American-born animal in June 2005.

The agreement allowing U.S. and Canadian beef back into the country stipulates that meat come only from cattle 21 months or younger. It excludes meat containing spines, brains, bone marrow and other cattle parts considered a high risk for mad-cow disease.

Johanns said the mistakes were due to the newness of the export rules.

The plant, Brooklyn-based Atlantic Veal & Lamb, and its supplier, Ohio-based Golden Veal Corp., were certified to ship to Japan on Jan. 6. They were the first two companies allowed to export veal to Japan.

The Japanese government is taking a wait-and-see approach to the possiblity of resuming imports of American beef.

"The most important thing we should do now is to examine the report," Japanese Agriculture Minister Shoichi Nakagawa told the Associated Press on Friday. "I have no intention of rushing to a conclusion."

Millions of dollars in meat exports are now at stake. Of the $3.9 billion US in worldwide sales of U.S. beef in 2003, Japan accounted for $1.4 billion.

Friday's report makes recommendations to prevent a repeat of the problem. It also reveals a second violation of export rules. The shipment also contained offal produced by the Golden plant, which was not authorized to ship the inedible trimmings.

Agriculture Department officials say they have taken steps to fix the problem, including halting blanket certification for plants shipping to Japan. The plants will instead be granted permission to ship specific cuts and products, officials said.