This week’s talks may pave the way for easing Tokyo’s strict import restrictions

Japan and the United States will begin talks this week on easing Tokyo’s strict import restrictions on American beef.

The Japanese government announced on Monday that experts from the two countries will meet on Wednesday and Thursday in Tokyo to discuss the safety of American beef. If progress is made this week, further talks will be held between high-level government officials.

This week’s Japan-U.S. meeting will come two weeks after Tokyo’s decision on June 13 to stop re-inspecting all beef shipments from the U.S. and shift to a sampling system of inspections.

Japan made the decision to end re-inspections of all beef shipments from the U.S. after it found no safety problems at dozens of U.S. meatpacking facilities it inspected. Japanese officials inspected 28 meatpacking plants in 14 states in May to evaluate their compliance with conditions Japan imposed over mad cow disease concerns.

The OIE agreed in late May to allow the U.S. to export beef regardless of cattle age under the organization’s standards for mad cow disease prevention, providing Washington with fresh ammunition to pressure Tokyo to ease its beef import regulations. OIE is the French acronym of the World Organization for Animal Health.

While welcoming the Japanese decision to end re-inspections of all American beef imports, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns has reiterated his call for Japan and other countries to set a specific timeframe for relaxing restrictions on American beef imports.

“We are pressing for clear, aggressive timelines from our trading partners that demonstrate their commitment to internationally agreed-upon OIE standards,” Johanns said.

Japan banned imports of American beef in December 2003 after the first case of mad cow disease was found in the U.S. The ban was eased in December 2005, but tightened again the following month after spinal bones prohibited under the bilateral agreement were found in a veal shipment.

Tokyo eased the restrictions again last July, but allowed only meat from cows 20 months old or younger to enter Japan. Japan also bans meat with certain bone or spinal material attached.

Japan’s import conditions for American beef are said to be the harshest in the world. The U.S. has particularly called for the age condition to be eased to international standards of 30 months old or younger.

Although Japan resumed imports of American beef last year, the import volume is still one-tenth of what it was before the first case of mad cow disease was discovered in the U.S. in 2003.

Hisane Masaki is a Tokyo-based journalist, commentator and scholar on international politics and economics. This piece was originally published at OhMyNews.