Koizumi rebuffs appeal from
Bush on BSE

October 4, 2004
By IAN ELLIOTT
Feedstuffs Correspondent

According to a report published last Wednesday in Japan's Mainichi Shimbun
newspaper, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi rebuffed a direct
appeal by U.S. President George Bush to use his "political influence" to end
an import ban on American beef when the two leaders held a meeting on the
sidelines of the U.N.'s General Assembly in New York City Sept. 21.

Quoting unnamed Japanese government officials, the paper said: "Bush asked
Koizumi to make a decision to lift the beef ban on the spot during the
meeting, but the prime minister declined the request, only saying that his
political influence should not be involved and that the issue should be
tackled from a scientific viewpoint."

The report said Japanese officials expect additional pressure to end or
alter the import ban in place since last December, now that Bush has weighed
in on the issue. The two sides are expected to resume discussions on the ban
in October.

Koizumi's government has faced some resistance in recent days from consumer
and farm groups over a proposal to end mandatory testing for bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle fewer than 20 months of age.
According to some Japanese reports, the U.S. side is now willing to accept
this cutoff date.

In other developments in recent days likely to affect progress on ending the
import ban, Koizumi appointed a new minister and vice minister of
agriculture. He also replaced his health minister, another department
involved in the BSE situation, while retaining his trade minister when he
moved 11 of his 17 Cabinet ministers Sept. 27.

Koizumi also appointed 70-year-old former education and farm minister
Yoshinobu Shimamura to the agriculture portfolio. A native of Tokyo, Japan,
Shimamura is viewed as a straight-talking, veteran politician, winning his
seat eight times for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

On Sept. 29, Koizumi appointed 55-year-old Hiroyoshi Nishi as vice minister
in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries.

As part of the Cabinet remake, Koizumi also appointed Hidehisa Otsuji, an
LDP member from Japan's upper legislative chamber, as health, labor and
welfare minister and retained economy, trade and industry minister Shoichi
Nakagawa. Nakagawa was responsible for negotiating a landmark free trade
agreement with Japan, which Koizumi signed in Mexico City, Mexico, before
traveling to New York.

Japan first banned imports of beef from the U.S. last December, after U.S.
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced publicly that officials had
discovered the nation's first case of BSE. Before the ban, Japan had been a
major export market for American beef.