060216 Probe Reveals How Banned U.S. Meat Entered Japan

Washington - Veal plant workers and government inspectors misunderstood new trade rules when they shipped prohibited veal to Japan, the Bush administration conceded today in a report aimed at lifting a suspension on American beef.

The 475-page report explains why New York-based Atlantic Veal & Lamb sent a shipment of prohibited veal cuts to Japan last month. Japan responded by halting imports of U.S. beef, cutting off a market that had only recently been restored.

"This was not a situation where somebody was trying to hide something," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns told reporters on a conference call.

"Quite the opposite happened. It very clearly indicates they were just not connecting as to what could be shipped into the Japanese market," he said.

In Japan, the government said it was in no hurry to resume shipments of beef.

"The most important thing we should do now is to examine the report. I have no intention to rush to a conclusion," Agriculture Minister Shoichi Nakagawa told reporters after a briefing by U.S. Ambassador Thomas Scheiffer.

Japan suspended imports on Jan. 20 because the veal cuts contained backbone, which Asian countries consider at risk for mad cow disease. The cuts of veal, hotel rack and trimmed loin, are eaten in the United States and allowed under international trade rules.

"The veal posed absolutely no risk to human health; there was no danger there," Johanns said.

Johanns blamed the mistakes on the newness of the export rules. The plant and its supplier, Ohio-based Golden Veal Corp., were certified to ship to Japan on Jan. 6 and were the first two companies allowed to send veal to Japan. The Agriculture Department has rescinded their certifications.

The report findings, based on two separate investigations by the U.S., revealed a second violation of export rules. The shipment also contained offal, or inedible trimmings, that was produced by the Golden plant, which was not authorized to ship offal. Furthermore, at least some of the offal came from calves that were slaughtered before the plant was eligible to make any shipments to Japan.

A Japanese customer had ordered specific veal products from Atlantic on Dec. 27, Johanns said.

Millions of dollars in exports hang in the balance while officials struggle to repair the damage.

Of the $3.9 billion in global sales of American beef in 2003, Japan, once the biggest U.S. customer of the meat, accounted for $1.4 billion of beef and meat products.

Japan had only recently lifted a ban on American beef imposed after the United States confirmed its first case of mad cow disease in December 2003. In all, the U.S. has confirmed two cases of mad cow disease, while Japan has found 22 cases of the disease.

The Agriculture Department has taken several steps to ensure the rules are followed. For example, plants will no longer get blanket certification to ship to Japan; they will be granted permission to ship specific cuts and products, officials said.

As a condition for resuming imports, Japan had imposed several restrictions — beef must come from cattle younger than 21 months of age, and tissues that can carry mad cow disease, such as the backbone, brain, skull, eyes and other nerve tissue, must be removed.

The medical name for mad cow disease is bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. BSE is a degenerative nerve disease in cattle, and eating contaminated meat products has been linked to the rare but fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

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