JAPAN TO ANNOUNCE RESULTS OF MEAT PACKING

C O N F I D E N T I A L TOKYO 004115

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS TO USDA FOR SECRETARY JOHANNS AND
U/S PENN.

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/23/2026
TAGS: EAGR PREL ECON JA
SUBJECT: JAPAN TO ANNOUNCE RESULTS OF MEAT PACKING
FACILITIES' AUDIT ON JULY 27


Classified By: Ambassador J. Thomas Schieffer. Reason: 1.4 (b)(d).


1. (C) During a July 24, 2006 meeting with the Ambassador
(septel),Vice Foreign Minister Yachi noted his recent
conversation with the Ambassador on the BSE issue, adding
that he appreciated the Ambassador's contribution to the
solution of the problem. The two governments had held a
"good exit meeting" in the United States at the conclusion of
the Japanese government's audit of U.S. meat packing
facilities. Japan would do its best to provide formal
notification of the results of that audit on July 27. (Note:
MOFA First North America Division Director Takeo Mori
subsequently clarified that the planned July 27 notification
would not/not include announcement that beef imports to Japan
would be resumed. Agricultural Minister Counselor Berman,
however, was informed July 24 by his MAFF counterparts that
the announcement would, indeed, feature the lifting of the
import suspension.)


2. (C) MOFA North American Affairs Director General Chikao
Kawai, who accompanied Yachi, amplified that of the 35
facilities that had been inspected, only two remained under
discussion. One was the object of a merger in which the
other company had not been inspected. The second facility
under discussion had not passed inspection, he stated. When
the Ambassador observed that the Japanese public had reacted
better than he had expected to the USDA's accouncement that
it was reducing the level of its BSE testing, Kawai explained
that the public "had come to accept" that beef imports would
resume soon and so it had not become much on an issue.
SCHIEFFER