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U.S. lawmaker hints at sanctions against Japan over beef issue+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)WASHINGTON, Jan. 31_(Kyodo) _ U.S. House of Representatives Agriculture Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte criticized Japan on Tuesday and hinted at slapping sanctions on it for reimposing an import ban on U.S. beef, saying the United States would not stop automobile imports just because of defective parts. "Their closing their entire market...would be like the United States saying to the Japanese, we're closing our entire market to Japanese...automobiles because we find...some defective brakes, defective steering columns, other defective things," Goodlatte told reporters after meeting a visiting delegation of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan. In a statement issued after the meeting, Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia, also warned Japan that it will face "a very dramatic response" from the U.S. Congress if Tokyo fails to quickly resume the imports. His remarks came days after the U.S. beef industry expressed its apology for failing to comply with an agreement to remove materials considered a risk for transmitting mad cow disease before shipments to Japan, in contrast to the rather defensive remarks initially made by members of the beef community. The U.S. government has also expressed its "regret and apologies" for the incident, which it admitted was "an unacceptable failure on our part" to comply with the agreement. Japan reimposed a complete import ban on U.S. beef on Jan. 20 when a backbone, considered to be risk material under the agreement, was discovered in a veal shipment at Narita airport. The discovery outraged Japanese consumers as it came only a month after Japan had lifted its two-year-old import ban on condition that the United States would ship to Japan only meat from cattle aged up to 20 months and remove the brains, spinal cords and other specified risk materials. Noting that defects are found every year in Japanese automobiles, Goodlatte said the United States does not react with a ban on all imports and leaves it up to the American consumers whether they want to buy Japanese cars or those made by the United States or other countries. "Every year, the consumers get to make that decision, and the same thing should occur for Japanese consumers when it comes to American beef," Goodlatte said. Goodlatte said the shipment was a "human error," and stressed the backbone part is permitted for cattle aged up to 20 months under U.S. safety standards. "For the Japanese to use this one instance as the basis for saying that they can't trust our entire system and shutting down the market again is extremely frustrating," he said. The U.S. Congress "is very tired of having to deal with this bureaucratic, protectionist matter that is using alleged public health concerns in Japan as a pretext for what is clearly protectionist for Japanese beef producers," he said. U.S. lawmakers had introduced a bill requiring the government to slap economic sanctions on Japan if Tokyo failed to lift the import ban by the end of last year. "Our constituents are losing patience and the Congress is losing patience," Goodlatte said. "Enough is enough." "Japan enjoys a tremendous trade surplus with the United States and I think they are very insensitive to the fact the beef is one of the U.S. largest exports to Japan," he said. "It is becoming more and more difficult to justify keeping our markets open when our producers don't enjoy the same benefits with other countries." Japan was the largest importer of U.S. beef before it initially imposed the ban in December 2003, when the United States discovered its first case of mad cow disease. |