Martin urges Japan to end beef ban

[Guile]

Tokyo — Prime Minister Paul Martin is pushing his Japanese counterpart to open the country to Canadian beef as the men kicked off the first Canada-Japan meeting of leaders in six years.

Canadian officials said that the Prime Minister was making his arguments in a personal meeting with Junichiro Koizumi today in an effort to keep the issue front and centre in Japanese minds.

The Japanese banned the importation of Canadian beef in May, 2003, after a Canadian cow was discovered with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. The ban costs Canadian producers from $100-million to $150-million a year.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050119.wxmartin19/BNStory/Front/

[Watcher]

Nice timing... and another mad cow was just found 10 days ago. I wonder how the Japanese feel about this:

Officials said the Japanese are confident in the Canadian surveillance system despite the discovery in the past three weeks of two more cows suffering from the condition.

And yesssss.... I sssstil eat the burgerssss *gurgle*

[Buraku]

A US beef shipment to Japan that led to a renewed ban on American beef imports was an "unacceptable mistake", the US Deputy Secretary of State has said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4636734.stm
Robert Zoellick made the comment during a meeting with Japan's Agriculture minister in Tokyo.

Japan has halted the import of U.S. beef after an animal spine was found in a shipment at Tokyo International Airport, sparking new concerns over possible tainted meat less than two months after a previous ban was lifted.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/01/20/japan.us.beef/index.html

[dimwit]

Jeez it was weird to look at the title of the thread. Us Canadians would be more inclined to say about-to-be-former PM Martin.