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2ND LD: Japan not satisfied with U.S. beef investigation report+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, Feb. 20_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING WITH KOIZUMI'S COMMENTS) Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Monday it is "quite difficult" for Japan to lift its import ban on American beef immediately, following a report released by the United States on Friday in which it admitted a flaw in the U.S. inspection system for beef exports to Japan and vowed to take various preventive measures. Resuming imports immediately "would be quite difficult," Koizumi told reporters at his official residence, citing a perception gap between Japan and the United States over food safety. Koizumi made the comment after being briefed on the U.S. Department of Agriculture report by Japanese Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Shoichi Nakagawa at his office. Japan views the U.S. report as "insufficient" in terms of both its investigation into a shipment last month of banned bovine material and measures to prevent a recurrence, Nakagawa told reporters. Japanese officials plan to make various inquiries with Washington, and so it will take several days before Tokyo finalizes its response to the report, the farm minister said. "I reported (to the prime minister) that this report is insufficient for the Japanese side," Nakagawa said after talking with Koizumi. At stake is the 475-page report by which the United States is hoping to persuade Japan to lift its total import ban on American beef, which Tokyo reinstated Jan. 20 after detecting a backbone -- banned under a bilateral agreement as a mad cow risk -- in a U.S. veal shipment at Narita airport. U.S. lawmakers and meat industry leaders urged Japan on Friday to resume the imports given that the U.S. government had released an official investigation report and promised to take additional corrective measures over the veal shipment. But Koizumi told reporters that lifting the ban will depend on the results of Japan's scrutiny. "The Japanese side has many questions," Nakagawa also said. The renewed import ban by what had been the largest beef exporting market for the Untied States came only a month after Japan conditionally lifted its original two-year-old restriction on Dec. 12. Japan had lifted its initial ban on condition the meat comes from cattle aged up to 20 months and that brains, spinal cords and other specified risk materials that could transmit mad cow disease are removed before shipment. On Friday in Washington, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in releasing the document that he hopes the report will encourage Japan to resume imports, but expressed reluctance to set a timeline. Johanns reiterated his regret and apology for failing to comply with the agreement with Japan, but again stressed the shipped beef posed no safety risk according to U.S. standards on mad cow disease, officially called bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The U.S. government is expected to send USDA officials to Japan soon in order to explain their preventive measures and try to start negotiations to lift the import ban, but Nakagawa only said, "The U.S. side is free to do so." On whether Tokyo will lift the beef import ban, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said in an earlier press conference, "The government has yet to decide when to resume imports of U.S. beef." "The beef import ban will be lifted again only after the United States implements measures to prevent American firms from exporting banned materials and reassures Japanese consumers about the safety of the beef they sell," said Abe, the top government spokesman. |