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U.S. asks Japan to relax beef import conditions with deadline+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) TOKYO, April 16_(Kyodo) _ The United States has requested that Japan consider softening a condition it has attached to importing beef from the United States by setting a concrete deadline by which Tokyo should abide by, sources informed on bilateral relations said Sunday. The request, which the sources said includes a hint that Washington would file a complaint with the World Trade Organization over the matter, could put pressure on Tokyo ahead of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to the U.S. capital for summit talks later this month. During the upcoming talks, U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to prod Abe to do his bit to settle the bilateral row, which traces its origin to the 2003 discovery of U.S.-grown cattle infected with mad cow disease. Japan, which banned beef imports from the United States following the discovery, resumed the imports in December 2005 on the condition that the beef be limited to those from cattle aged up to 20 months and that dangerous parts be removed completely. Washington has since been asking Tokyo to soften the age restriction and is now threatening to take the matter to the WTO, the sources said. Those who have referred to the move are senior officials of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, including Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, they added. The latest U.S. move came after South Korea agreed to the imports of U.S.-grown beef with bones in the course of negotiating a free trade agreement with the United States, though it had banned the imports due to the risks of mad cow disease. Bush called on Japan and South Korea in March to thoroughly open their markets to allow the imports of beef from U.S.-grown cattle, pledging to raise the issue during the upcoming talks with Abe. One of the sources said Bush may soften his stance somewhat at the talks by heeding Abe's position in his country, suggesting that the president may stop short of alluding to a concrete deadline during the talks. Senior Japanese and U.S. officials in charge of economic issues had failed to settle the dispute during a recent meeting in Washington. The brain-wasting disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has frightened many people from consuming U.S. beef. Copyright 2007 Kyodo News International, Inc. |