Australia Offers Japan Its Beefs

Australia will provide Japan extra beef to help make up for shortages caused by Tokyo's decision to ban U.S. imports following the first case of mad cow in America, beef industry leaders told visiting Japanese officials Friday.

However, the industry leaders echoed the Australian government's request that Japan lower its punitive tariffs on beef imports, according to Australian Cattle Council chief Brett de Hayr, who attended the meeting.

"We told them our beef exporters can certainly play a role (in supplying more beef exports) but ... the higher tariffs in Japan are helping push prices higher," de Hayr told The Associated Press.

The mad cow scare is also hurting Canadian ranchers, with foreign markets closed, falling prices and rising inventories of cattle. Producers are unsure when the United States and other nations will resume importing Canadian beef.

"Canada has been in the penalty box since May," Doerksen said of the date a Black Angus cow in Alberta was found to be infected with mad cow disease.

Prices and confidence were starting to rise again when the U.S. case was discovered on a farm near Mabton, Wash., on Dec. 22. The U.S. Agriculture Department announced shortly after that it believed the sick Holstein dairy cow came from a farm north of Edmonton, Alberta.

On Tuesday, officials in both countries said genetic testing confirmed the cow was born in Canada.

That was a double blow because Canada had recently negotiated a deal to allow some beef and cattle to be shipped to the United States. Now the U.S. government says the ban will remain in place indefinitely.

Canadian ranchers typically ship half their beef to the United States.

Japan, the top consumer of American beef, joined more than 30 nations in suspending U.S. imports after a cow in Washington state tested positive in December for the brain-wasting disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Last year, Japan bought about $1 billion of U.S. beef and beef products.

Tokyo has been scrambling to make up for the shortfalls in beef as prices soar. A delegation of Japanese agriculture officials met with de Hayr and the head of the Australian Meat and Livestock Corp. on Friday in Sydney.

Japanese officials were also in New Zealand this week to look into buying more of its beef.

Beef prices in Japan had risen 40 percent to 60 percent since the ban, said de Hayr, who blamed the spike in prices partly on a 50 percent tariff on beef imports imposed by Japan last August to counter an influx of imports.

"What we said to them was that the Japanese government cannot influence supply but it can influence price through the tariff," he said.

Australia's Trade Minister Mark Vaile wrote to his Japanese counterpart on Thursday requesting the tariff be reduced.

De Hayr said they also told the Japanese delegation that Australian exporters would prefer to have the ban on U.S. beef lifted so the market could return to normal.

"A stable market is best for everyone," he said.

In 2002, Australia exported 4.3 billion Australian dollars ($3.2 billion) worth of beef and veal, mostly to the United States, Japan and South Korea.