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