Japan Says No Talk of Lifting U.S. Beef Ban This Year

[Sliverofhope]

July 23 (Bloomberg) -- Japan has not discussed lifting its ban on imports of U.S. beef this year, said Yoshiyuki Kamei, Japan's minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

``I don't know where the speculation came from'' regarding a possible end to the ban, Kamei said at a press conference in Tokyo. The Nihon Keizai newspaper reported earlier that Japanese imports of U.S. beef may resume this year.

Japan aims to reach an agreement with the U.S. on cattle testing when officials from both countries meet in August, and an accord on the standards may lead to a resumption of beef shipments, Kamei said. Japan in December banned U.S. beef imports, valued at more than $1 billion a year, after a case of mad cow was discovered in Washington state.

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000101&sid=aJTayg_pUwFA&refer=japan

[moondust]

1. Why hasn't the price of beef fallen here?

U.S. lost most of its export market but the price of a steak is still sky high. Is the supply and demand formula on vacation or what?

[xcmt]

3. Well...

The total percentage of red-meat production that gets exported is under 9%, and not all of that is/was to Japan. Plus, you have to consider that Canada is also lowering its exports of beef, which softens the world economic impact somewhat.

I don't have the numbers right here regarding worldwide import volumes and prices, but I'll look into it.

[Hekate]

2. That's better. Thank you, Japan!

Gosh, y'd think it would cost a whole lot less than a billion bucks a year to test all our cattle. And here's a thought: STOP FEEDING THEM SICK ANIMALS.

That's how this got started in the first place, as far as anyone knows: supplementing the feed of meat-animals with what's euphemistically known as "animal by-products" seems to have caused the sheep-disease scrapie to jump species. In the long time before it happened or was noticed, though, the Dept of Ag scientists were promoting animal by-products in feed as a sure-fire way to boost weight and production of milk, making US farms about the most productive in the world.

Well now we know better. We know better, and we should stop it, but now we have factory-farms owned by corporations, and unfortunately we also know already about the social conscience of most corporations.

So economic consequences, wherever they come from, sound just dandy to me.

Hekate