TOKYO (Reuters) – The United States’ first reported mad cow disease case in six years will not affect negotiations about Japan’s possible membership in a U.S.-led Pacific trade pact, the government said on Wednesday.
For Washington, Japan’s curbs on beef imports from countries hit by the disease are one the sticking points and U.S. exporters have been counting on Tokyo to relax the curbs following a review initiated in December.
The curbs, which in 2005 replaced a total ban put in place after the first mad cow case in 2003, have capped U.S. imports in what is still the largest Asian market for U.S. beef.
In 2011, Japan imported 120,000 tonnes of U.S. beef, the second-biggest origin after Australia in its market of 517,000 tonnes, or 210 billion yen ($2.59 billion).
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Japan only allows imports of U.S. and Canadian beef from cattle aged 20 months or less, but its Food Safety Commission (FSC) is assessing the risk of easing the limit to 30 months.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said the new case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) reported on Tuesday should have no bearing on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks.
“The BSE issue will be dealt separately from discussion of TPP and is being handled separately from a scientific standpoint,” he told a news conference.
Japan, Mexico and Canada in November expressed interest in joining the talks and since then nine nations already negotiating the pact have been discussing the feasibility of bringing the three countries into the agreement without lowering its standards or allowing the talks to drag on.
U.S. lawmakers and business groups are seeking assurances from Tokyo that Japan will be willing to open up its sheltered farming sector, its insurance market and remove what Detroit carmakers say are non-tariff barriers to car imports.
Japan, on the other hand, is looking to Washington for a clear endorsement of its participation in TPP.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama on April 30, about two weeks before the nine countries – the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Chile, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei – convene in Dallas for another round of negotiations.
($1 = 81.1500 Japanese yen)
(Writing by Tomasz Janowski; Editing by Michael Urquhart)