Tokyo currently only allows American beef from cattle aged 20 months or younger, as a precaution against mad cow disease, but it has started to take steps which industry officials believe could lead to raising the age limit to 30 months. The data was provided at a two-day meeting of Japanese and US experts.
"We believe we have been provided with enough US data to study risks from BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy)," Vice Agriculture Minister Yoshio Kobayashi told a news conference. "We are currently taking steps to evaluate the data."
He declined to say when government officials would complete their evaluation, although media reports have said it could be as early as this month.
The Yomiuri newspaper said the government plans to tell Washington it will likely relax the restrictions as early as the end of August. The United States is struggling to regain its share of the beef market in Japan, which was the top buyer of US beef before 2003, when Tokyo imposed a ban after the first US case of mad cow disease, also known as BSE.
Since the ban was last lifted in mid-2006, monthly US beef exports to Japan have remained at about 10% of their pre-ban level, which amounted to some 240,000 tons in 2003.
The age limit, which has restricted the supply of eligible beef, has been blamed as a major reason for the slump.
A separate Agriculture Ministry official said the meeting was likely to be the last round of technical talks, although another meeting could not be ruled out.
Next, Japan will need to ask the Food Safety Commission, an independent body of experts, to study the risks and make a policy recommendation.
"We will ask the commission to make a risk evaluation if we decide that we do not need to maintain the current control scheme," the official said.
Japanese government officials have refrained from saying the age limit will be revised, although Japanese beef industry officials say there is little doubt that it will be relaxed and the only question is when. (Reuters)
