Agence France Presse | July 1, 2003
Japanese Agriculture Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei is due here July 12 for talks with Canadian counterpart Lyle Vanclief on mad cow disease, a spokesman for Prime Minister Jean Chretien said Tuesday.
"Mr Chretien had a telephone conversation with the Japanese prime minister," Junichiro Koizumi, during which this visit was confirmed, said spokesman Frederique Tsai. Ottawa is hoping the meeting will to lead to a lifting of an embargo on Canadian beef declared by some 20 countries, including the United States, following the discovery of a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) last May in the western province of Alberta.
Since then, Tokyo has insisted the United States withdraw, until September, any Canadian products used in the export of beef.
Canada fears that Japanese demand will delay lifting of the ban on Canadian beef imports into the United States, an embargo that is costing the Canadian beef industry some 27 million dollars (17 million US) a day.
Last year, Japan imported 19,052 tons of Canadian beef, only around 4 percent of Japan's total beef imports for the year.
Japan, with seven known cases of BSE, is the only Asia country affected by the brain-wasting disease that devastated the European beef market in the 1990s when it jumped species and began killing humans in the form of variant Crutzfeld-Jakob Disease.
The news of the first case of BSE in Japan in September 2001 caused panic among Japanese consumers.Agence France Presse:
