The Japanese perspective

[Cattle Rack Rancher]

Texan;
I'm only hearing what my brother-in-law is telling me and he would be considered to be an average citizen of Japan. He is not in a government position. The key thing for me is that Canada and the US have not opened the border to beef from Japan, that sounds like a major sticking point to me. The propaganda by the Japanese producers kind of reminds me of another group, but I'm not interested in getting into that right now. Are your sources for this information credible, Oldtimer? It sounded to me that the Japanese border opening is imminent and the opening of the Canadian border may coincide with the Japanese border opening as part of the deal. We can only hope.

 

[Texan]

I don't have any idea about the USDA's sources for this, but this market report came from the latest Livestock Weekly. I've trimmed it down and added the italics for the pertinent part that I referred to in an earlier post. Interesting speculation, if nothing else. Still hard for me to imagine a border opening before November 3rd, but if its gonna happen, it sure would be nice to have the increased demand to go with the increased supply!


Nation's Heavy Feeder Cattle
Feel First Decline In Months

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. —(USDA)— .......Much of the industry has turned a blind eye to all this buying of un-hedgable feeders with seemingly unreachable breakevens, banking on the idea that Japan will resume importing U.S. beef and slaughter cattle prices will make a run for the triple digits.

New rumors surface each week, but so far our best steak customers remain on the sidelines, and now it appears that the eventual increase in export demand may coincide with the opening of the Canadian border, which could squash much of the market support..........

 

[Oldtimer]

........the Japanese still see Canada as having 2 BSE origin cows- and they want assurances from the USDA that the US can again segregate out the Canadian beef...........

Oldtimer, do you think this is possible? In other words, do you think the USDA and packers might be working on a deal to segregate that would satisfy Japan and that would allow them to open the border at the same time? What do you guys up there think?

Texan- After the Alberta cow and before the Washington cow was discovered- the packers had been able to segregate the Canadian beef- Then after the Washington cow, everything closed down. So it has been done before and could be done again- especially since there are no live cattle coming in from Canada--Several feedlots have been feeding for the Japanese market for years- Many times in the last 3-4 years, when I inspected calves being sold the buyer would require the owner to sign an affidavit verifying county, state, and country where raised, age, and any feed or shots given- These calves are then tagged and tracked immediately upon arrival at the feedlots--They told me that the Japanese were requiring this as a form of source verification. This was before either country had BSE.

Cattle Rack- my source has given me good info before- One thing I forgot to mention is that while the Japanese are still saying no imports without testing- they are leaning toward allowing beef from "under 20 month" old US cattle in without testing--- IF and thats the big word- IF nothing else comes up- (another BSE case, USDA slipup or whatever).

 

[Cattle Rack Rancher]

As I said:

The key thing for me is that Canada and the US have not opened the border to beef from Japan, that sounds like a major sticking point to me.

TOKYO, Aug 03, 2004 (Kyodo via COMTEX) -- Japan is unhappy at the U.S. government's plan to resume exporting American beef to Japan before removing an import ban on Japanese beef, Japanese government sources said Tuesday.

Tokyo views the U.S. plan as disregarding a bilateral agreement to simultaneously resolve the suspension of beef trade between the two countries caused by the outbreak of mad cow disease, the sources said.

Japan has halted American beef imports since the first U.S. mad cow case was reported in December in the state of Washington.

The United States, for its part, has kept an import ban on Japanese beef as a result of the outbreak in Japan of foot-and-mouth disease in 2000 and of mad cow disease in 2001.

The two governments agreed in April that they should strive to reach a conclusion by this summer to resume beef trade.

Japan therefore has begun reviewing its blanket testing on all slaughtered cattle for mad cow disease.

Recently, the U.S. government sounded Japan out about a plan to resume American beef exports to Japan before lifting the import ban on Japanese beef on the grounds that necessary amendments to food safety rules take a long time, so as to avoid affecting third countries.

Japan and the United States have held three expert meetings on the beef trade problems and are due to discuss specific terms to remove their import bans at a meeting of senior government officials later this month.

The U.S. plan may affect the coming negotiations especially because the two governments have yet to narrow their differences over the terms for removing the U.S. import ban on Japanese beef.