Progress made to resume Japanese beef Exports to China

April 15, 2019

Beijing--Japan and China effectively agreed Sunday to conclude an animal health and quarantine treaty, an important step toward resuming Japan's beef exports to China.

The agreement was reached at high-level economic dialogue in Beijing that brought together six Japanese ministers, including Foreign Minister Taro Kono, and Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

China has banned imports of Japanese beef since an outbreak of mad cow disease in Japan in 2001.

Japan is willing to work together with China to put the treaty into force at an early date, Kono told reporters after the dialogue.

At the dialogue, the Japanese side expressed concerns about structural economic issues in China, including forced technology transfers from foreign firms to their partners in China and intellectual property protection, according to Kono.

The Japanese officials also pressed their Chinese counterparts to remove or ease Beijing's import restrictions on Japanese food that have been in place since the 2011 triple meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s <9501> Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. Jiji Press