US Japanese Negotiations

[kato]

Check out Asia Times online. This should be a good place to watch the US Japan negotiations. I am afraid our fate is in their hands.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/FB12Dh03.html

[magpie]

After reading report maybe Neil Janke might have known a little something after all.We hope the talks go well.

[cowman]

From reading the article I get the feeling that America probably has the big stick out trying to force the Japanese market open. And they may be very successful. However it will be the Japanese consumer who decides in the end whether it will fly. If I was a Japanese beef producer I would be outraged(and very vocal) at the double standard being applied.
Japan has an election coming up this year. The ruling party is on pretty shaky ground right now and I doubt they would want to upset the public? If they open the border before the election I would suspect the opposing parties might like to make things hot?
Notice also there is no mention of Canada being included in any concessions. Now without a doubt if US beef could flow into Japan it would open up some room in the American market so that would be a good thing,but I doubt we'll be shipping any beef to Japan?

[kato]

I think the leaning is toward the US only sending young cattle, in return the Japanese will allow them in without testing. The Americans will have to pull out a lot of evidence to prove young cattle are safe.

[cowman]

I also found it amazing that the US would even consider this deal as it excludes all the spinal cuts(ribeye,striploin, tenderloin). I mean those are the money cuts?
Once again it raises the science? The spinal cuts deboned still contain the nerve ganglia which is where the prions flourish? So what the Japanese are saying is it doesn't matter one iota if you remove the SRMs because in fact the BSE prion is in the prime muscle cuts anyway. Well so much for removing the SRMs!