TOKYO (AFP) - Japan reached a basic agreement with the United States to resume its imports of American beef, despite a mad cow disease scare, pending scientific studies to determine the age of cows.
Japan has already offered to exempt cows aged 20 months or younger from a 10-month-old ban, if highly risky parts such as brains and spinal cords are removed from them.
But, at three-day high-level talks which ended here Saturday, Japan refused to accept US proposals to verify the age of cows by probing the colour of flesh and the development of bone structure.
The Japanese side rejected the proposals as "unscientific", Japanese officials said earlier.
"We presume that the imports will be resumed by July next year," a senior Japanese foreign ministry official told reporters after the meeting.
A joint press statement by the two governments said: "Further details of some conditions and modalities remain to be worked out by experts and working-level officials of both countries by the time of the actual resumption of trade."
"Experts of both countries will continue to consult on caracass grading and quality attributes with a view to verifying physiological age to evaluate caracasses to be 20 months of age or younger," the statement said.
Japan had initially insisted on testing all cows as a condition for lifting the ban, but the difficulty in detecting the disease in younger cows led Japan to back down.
Japan was the largest export market for US beef until December 2003, when Tokyo imposed a ban along with other countries on imports from the United States immediately after mad cow disease was discovered there.
Cows aged 20 months or younger account for some 80 percent of Japan's total US beef imports, according to Japan's health ministry.
Japan has screened every cow slaughtered for consumption after confirming mad cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), in its own herd in September 2001. The 14th case in Japan was confirmed last week.
10/23/2004 - 14:17 GMT - AFP