The United States and Japan agreed on Wednesday to try to find a way to end a ban on imports of US beef imposed after an outbreak of mad cow disease, Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said on Wednesday.
Japan suspended imports of beef from the United States in December after the discovery there of a case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalitis.
Speaking after meeting Agriculture Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei, Zoellick said agreement had been reached on the importance of trade in US beef.
"We agreed to continue to work together toward an early resumption in this trade," Zoellick told reporters, adding that discussions on technical issues would continue.
Japan, which buys about $1 billion worth of US beef annually, instituted strict safeguards, including testing all cattle slaughtered for consumption, after discovering its own first case of mad cow disease in September 2001.
Japan wants all US cattle to be tested for mad cow disease, but that proposal has been rejected by the US industry as too costly and unnecessary.
Japan is the first stop on Zoellick's nine-country tour of trade capitals aimed at reviving stalled world trade talks. His next stop is China.
Besides beef and talks about relaunching the trade talks that collapsed nearly five months ago in Cancun, Mexico, Zoellick said he discussed Japan's ban on imports of US poultry.
Japan recently banned chicken imports from the United States after the discovery of bird flu in Delaware.
Zoellick said the United States wanted more talks with Japan on beef after it completes its assessment of an international review and decides what possible additional steps to take.
"What we asked of our Japanese colleagues is that when we finish the examination of the review, we would like to come back to Japan and talk about possible steps to reopen the market on a scientific basis," Zoellick said.
The US Agriculture Department said on Monday the government's investigation of its first case of mad cow disease concluded that none of the infected animal's herdmates that could be located had the brain-wasting disease.