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U.S. defends inspection systems for beef exports to Japan+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, March 20_(Kyodo) _ The United States has defended its inspection systems for beef exports to Japan and isolated an inspection problem found in January as unique, the Japanese government said Monday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture made the defense in its written response to Japanese questions about the incident in January, in which Japan found an ineligible product in a shipment of U.S. beef. The incident led to Japan suspending beef imports from the United States since then. "(The) USDA is very confident that this detection of ineligible product in a single veal shipment does not indicate weakness in the overall U.S. beef processing, inspection or export systems," the department said in the written response the Japanese government made available. "Moreover, based upon the findings of the investigation, (the) USDA has incorporated additional protections into the U.S. system to avoid repetition of this incident," it said. Japan lifted its two-year-old ban on U.S. beef imports in December on condition of a U.S. export verification program requiring beef shipments to Japan to come from 20-month-old or younger cattle and exclude backbones and other risk materials to dispel mad cow disease concerns. The incident in January, when a backbone was found in a shipment of beef imported to Japan, showed USDA inspectors failed to prevent such risk materials from being sent to this country. The USDA response said the inspectors involved in the January shipment were "well-trained on all certifications related to food safety issues, but were not sufficiently aware of the EV program." EV program refers to export verification. The U.S. government reportedly plans to dispatch experts to Japan as early as this week to give explanations about the USDA response and request that Japan soon resume imports of U.S. beef. |