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Just when it seemed that Japan was moving rapidly toward
reopening its market to American beef products, controversy
broke out during a scheduled meeting of the independent
Food Safety Commission, when members attacked the government
for allegedly caving to U.S. pressure. Without the approval
of the FSC, Japan cannot end its ban on U.S. beef.
At the same time, the head of the Japanese delegation that
visited the U.S. over the past week, Kenji Yamaoka, told
the Australian Broadcast System that U.S. Agriculture Under
Secretary J.B. Penn threatened the delegation, saying that
the U.S. was reaching "the limits of its patience."
One member of the Food Safety Commission, Kiyotoshi Kaneko,
charged that the government misled the Commission when it
said that the decision to end universal testing of all cattle
slaughtered in Japan had nothing to do with attempts to
reopen the market to U.S. beef, according to a Reuters report.
Consumer groups, meanwhile, have stepped up their resistance
to resuming imports, noting that 65 percent of Japanese
consumers oppose changing the policy.
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