05/09/05 Any hope to get our beef back in?, Pt.2

While neither Japan nor South Korea's governments announced reopening of their markets to U.S. beef products while a U.S.D.A. technical team was visiting those nations last week, there was some hope that progress was being made from the U.S. point of view. A push by the U.S. delegation to Japanese consumers about the health and safety benefits of our beef products seem to have registered, fostering increased demand from Japan's public to their government to allow our beef back in. And Japan's Food Safety Commission in the coming month is expected to formally relax that nation's full b.s.e. testing rule and begin concentrating on how that applied to imported meat. But U.S.D.A. Under Secretary J.B. Penn cautions that considering how long it has taken Japan to consider relaxing its rules through its very deliberate regulatory process, and the calls of some Congressional types earlier this year to enact retaliatory tariffs, the U.S. may not be as patient with Japan as it has been in the past. PENN: And they've again, led us to believe that they'll expedite that process. I can't give you an exact date, but the frustration level is going to go back up if this is not an expedited process. However, some better news came from the second leg of the U.S.D.A. technical team's Asian mission. The attempts to reopen South Korea, the U.S.'s third largest international customer prior to America's b.s.e. case, seem to be making more progress. That's according to the lead official of the technical team, U.S.D.A. Deputy Under Secretary Chuck Lambert. LAMBERT: Korea will have a team here the first week of June visiting processing plants, feed mills, the production system. Prior to that, they will have a group of n.g.o.'s or non-government organizations that serve as part of their advisory group, here the first part of May to again review production systems, talk to chefs and users of beef and consumers of beef. So I think we're moving in the direction towards re-opening once we have that technical team here, and there will be technical discussions associated with that in June. And while some observers may feel these maneuvers between the U.S., Japan, and South Korea may not offer much hope, U.S.D.A. Secretary Mike Johanns says on the contrary, he sees lights approaching very soon to the end of these particular trade issue tunnels. JOHANNS: I would have not sent a team if I felt this was just part of an on-going never-ending process.