Japan's agriculture minister yesterday called a US probe into the outbreak of mad cow disease incomplete and said his country would not reconsider a six-week ban on American beef until it receives new proposals from Wash-ington for tighter safeguards.
Japan is pressing the US to test all cattle for the disease before slaughter, a measure implemented by Japan's much smaller beef industry after a mad cow scare here two years ago.
The US says blanket testing is unnecessary and would be pro-hibitively expensive, but a series of US agriculture and trade officials sent to Tokyo to persuade Japan to lift an import ban have come away empty handed.
Agriculture Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei said yesterday that he had asked the most recent delegation to propose safeguards "based on" Japan's system, which Kamei credited with restoring consumer confidence in Japanese beef.
"We have explained our country's position," Kamei said in a television interview. "We are expecting some kind of proposal from the United States."
Before it suspended imports on Dec. 24, Japan was the most lucrative export market for US beef, buying almost US$1 billion worth in 2002.
Kamei criticized last month's decision by the US Agricultural Department to give up efforts to track all 80 cows that entered the US from a Canadian farm with a single Holstein that tested positive for the disease in Washington state in December. The probe closed after 28 cows were traced.
"It's unclear where the other 50 cows ended up, and that's not adequate," he said. "I don't think they made enough of an effort."
"There's no guarantee there won't be a second or third case, and Japanese consumers need to feel confident about eating American beef even if that happens," he said.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US