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Japan rebuffs US demand to lift ban on beef imports

Japan rebuffed Washington's demands on Friday that Tokyo ease its terms for lifting a ban on US beef imports, imposed two years ago due to fears of mad cow disease.

US Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns had earlier insisted that cows younger than 30 months are scientifically considered safe from mad cow disease, and can be imported. Japan wants to set the limit at 21 months.

"We have received no formal request [from Washington], and even if we did receive one, we're not in a position to say yes," Japan's Agriculture Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said on Friday.

Nakagawa said that Japan would study the issue.

"Our focus is on ensuring safety and gaining public consent," he said.

Tokyo banned American beef in December 2003 after the discovery of the first US case of mad cow disease.

Japan was then the most lucrative overseas market for US beef, and an increasingly impatient Washington has pushed hard for the ban to be lifted.

Earlier this week, Japan's food safety commission approved a report saying the mad cow disease risk in US beef was minuscule -- as long as imports were limited to meat from cows under 21 months, and all brain and spinal cord matter was removed.

Japan is expected to reach a decision on the matter by the end of the year, after month-long public hearings that began this week.

Johanns has criticized the commission's report, saying the conditions are too stringent.

"The science is very, very clear that in animals under 30 months, you just don't have a [mad cow disease] problem," Johanns said on Thursday. "So obviously we hope to continue to open up the marketplace."

Many scientists believe that beef from cattle infected with mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, can cause a fatal brain disorder in humans.

Japanese consumers remain deeply wary of US beef, with recent polls showing that nearly 70 percent opposed lifting the ban.
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