Japan has ordered inspections of all US beef imported over the past month, a top official said yesterday, calling for a full explanation of a US violation of a bilateral beef pact before a fresh import ban can be lifted.
Japan halted US beef imports last week after inspectors found spinal bone, considered at risk of containing mad cow disease, in a US veal shipment. The halt came only a month after a two-year-old ban on US beef was partially lifted.
The calls for US action came as US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick met Japanese officials to pledge future US compliance with the pact. A delegation of US agriculture officials also headed to Japan yesterday.
pointed criticism
Japanese officials were especially pointed in their criticism of US beef inspectors for letting banned material through. The government openly pushed for a resumption of imports last year, despite wariness among finicky consumers.
"The US had a duty to firmly observe the conditions for resuming imports, and it is regrettable that this duty was not observed," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe. "The US needs to firmly investigate into the cause of why this duty was not observed."
Abe said he would urge Zoellick in a meeting later in the day to take all possible measures to "eliminate the suspicions of Japanese consumers."
In the meantime, he said, no US beef would be allowed into Japan until Washington is able to provide a satisfactory report on how the violation happened and what preventative measures the US will take.
"As a safety measure, we have instructed the importing industries in Japan to do an independent inspection of all the US beef that has already been imported to make sure that there are no dangerous parts included," he said.
bitter reversal
The import halt was a bitter reversal for US beef in Japan. Tokyo imposed a ban on American beef imports in 2003 after the first detection of mad cow disease in the US herd, and reopened it last month only to meat from cows aged 20 months or less.
The deal also excluded spines, brains, bone marrow and other parts of cattle thought to be at particularly high risk of containing the disease.
Prior to the ban, Japan had been US beef's most lucrative overseas market, buying some US$1.4 billion worth in 2003. The fresh halt came just as US officials were mounting an effort to get Japan to raise the age of cows it would accept beef from.
Zoellick on Sunday called the shipment of prohibited bone materials an unacceptable mistake in his meeting with Agriculture Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, and expressed "sincere regret" on behalf of the US, according to Michael Boyle, a spokesman for the US Embassy in Tokyo.
US industry groups say the recent veal shipment, though it contained spine material, was from calves less than six months old, and that mad cow disease hasn't been found in animals that young.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS