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Contact: Cameron Hardy
202-224-6441 |
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Thomas: Japan To Reopen Border to Beef
International Trade Chairman says efforts to influence Japan paid off |
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December 8th, 2005 - WASHINGTON – After a multi-faceted approach to compel Japan to reopen its border to beef from the United States, U.S. Senator Craig Thomas announced today that Japan will remove the trade barrier as early as Dec. 12.
Thomas took the concerns to the highest levels of government including the President, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Agriculture Secretary and the Japanese Ambassador in his efforts to reopen beef trade with Japan.
“This is a great win for U.S. beef,” Thomas said. “Japan represents $100 million every month for the U.S. beef industry,” Thomas said. “Japan health officials finally realized that our nation has the safest meat in the world.”
The senator cautioned that Japan has only opened their border to meat from cows younger than 21 months.
“I believe that all of our beef is safe and will continue to pursue a less restrictive agreement – but this is a good first step,” Thomas said. “My vision for international trade calls for a fair exchange of goods – it will be good to get back to that model.”
Thomas and 20 U.S. Senators, including Mike Enzi, cosponsored legislation on Oct. 25 to impose tariffs on Japan for refusing to import American beef.
Thomas has been at the forefront of the debate since Japan decided to ban U.S. beef in 2003. In addition to being a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, he is the Chairman of the International Trade Subcommittee.
Wyoming’s senior senator had previously said that Japan was dealing the United States a dead hand. He expressed concern that for two years our beef industry has had to watch Japan drag its feet.
Since the first border closure in 2003, the U.S. beef industry has lost about $6 billion in income.
“This is a big step toward opening the other Asian markets. Japan was our biggest export market and S. Korea was our second-biggest export market,” Thomas said.
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