Top US senators urge Japan lift beef curbs

Two powerful US senators pressed Japan Tuesday to lift what they called "scientifically unfounded" restrictions on US beef exports and to end preferential treatment for Japan Post over private competitors.

"We look forward to improved economic relations between the United States and Japan once these serious trade concerns are resolved," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana, a Democrat, and the panel's top Republican, Charles Grassley of Iowa, wrote Japan's ambassador to Washington.

Japan banned US beef in December 2003 after the brain-wasting cattle disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was found in a US herd. Japan had until then been the US cattle industry's biggest export market.

The ban nearly grew into a full-blown trade war, with US farm-state senators pressing for sanctions unless Tokyo opened up its markets by the end of 2005.

Japan agreed in 2006 to resume US imports on the condition that age and portion limits were imposed on cattle at the time of slaughter.

In their letter to Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki, the US senators underlined that "millions of Americans consume US beef from cattle of all ages every day, so the safety of this product cannot seriously be in doubt."

"This scientifically unfounded barrier to imports of US beef is causing economic hardship for cattle and beef producers in Montana and Iowa," two major US farm states, they wrote.

"We urge Japan to base its beef trade policies on science and to open its market to all US beef," they said.

The senators made a similar plea on behalf of US-produced, bovine-origin gelatin for human consumption, condemning Japan's restrictions as "scientifically unjustified" and urging Tokyo to open its markets.

Baucus and Grassley also expressed worry about "preferential treatment" Japan Post entities have received in the country's insurance, banking, and express delivery markets at the expense of private competitors.

"We urge Japan to address these concerns in its legislation so that US and other private sector suppliers receive the equal treatment that Japan?s international obligations require," they wrote.

The letter came roughly 10 days after another US senator, Republican Mike Johanns, condemned Japan's "blatantly unfair" restrictions on US beef in a meeting with Fujisaki.