[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 23377]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  CONTINUED JAPANESE BAN ON U.S. BEEF

  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I rise today to express deep frustration 
over Japan's unwillingness to lift its ban on U.S. beef. My patience--
and the patience of many of colleagues in this chamber--has run out. 
The time for talk and empty promises is over.
  I have long been, and remain, a friend of Japan. I first visited that 
country many years ago as a student and was deeply touched by the 
kindness extended to me by the people of Japan. In over 30 years in 
Congress, I have worked hard to strengthen our trade and economic ties. 
I have watched proudly as the U.S.-Japan economic relationship has 
grown and prospered.
  Times have not always been easy. I have engaged closely on U.S.-Japan 
issues through good times and through periods of great strain. But even 
in the most difficult times, I have made every effort to roll up my 
sleeves and work through problems in order to ensure that our trade 
relationship with Japan works for the people of Montana and the United 
States.
  By and large, that relationship works, and it works well. In trade, 
one of our crowning achievements together has been the construction of 
a rules-based multilateral trading system--first through the General 
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and now through the World Trade 
Organization. Without Japan's leadership and cooperation during the 
Tokyo Round, the Uruguay Round, and now in the Doha Round, it would 
have been difficult--if not impossible--to craft the important rules 
that govern world trade.
  It is therefore with bitter disappointment that I stand here today on 
the Senate floor to draw attention to Japan's failure to play by the 
rules that it helped to create. Japan has banned U.S. beef from its 
market since December 2003. That ban--almost 2 years old--costs the 
U.S. cattle and beef industries hundreds of millions of dollars each 
month. That ban puts at risk jobs in American ranches. And that ban--
with absolutely no basis in science--is unsustainable under 
international trade law.
  In the 2 years since the ban was put in place, I have traveled to 
Japan to meet personally with Japan's trade and agriculture ministers 
to argue for lifting the ban on U.S. beef. I have met with the Japanese 
ambassador to press Japan to lift its ban. I have taken senior 
officials from Japan and other countries that ban U.S. beef to Montana, 
and fed them Montana beef on a Montana ranch, to encourage them to lift 
the ban. And I have urged President Bush, Agriculture Secretary 
Johanns, U.S. Trade Representative Portman, and other senior 
administration officials to make lifting the Japanese ban on U.S. beef 
a top priority.
  At first, I was encouraged by what appeared to be steps that Japan 
was taking to lift this ban. The United States and Japan even signed an 
agreement in October 2004 to remove the ban. At that time and since, I 
was repeatedly assured by Japanese officials that, under this 
agreement, the Japanese government would set up a ``scientific'' 
process to determine when and how to resume imports of U.S. beef 
products.
  It is now one year later, and still nothing. Instead, it now looks to 
me like that Japan's administrative process has become an exercise of 
smoke and mirrors. Japan says the right things. But its action--or 
actually inaction--has been far more telling.
  Let me assure my Japanese counterparts, there is no higher quality, 
safer, or better tasting beef in the world. I eat it. My family eats 
it. Japanese visitors to the United States eat it. Japanese students 
living in the United States eat it. Many beef eaters around the world 
prefer and consume U.S. beef. Yet, despite scientific proof of the 
safety of U.S. beef, there has been no quality Montanan or other 
American beef imported into Japan in almost 2 years.
  I can no longer accept assurances from the Japanese government that 
it will lift the ban. Montana's ranchers have heard enough vague 
promises during the last two years. We're fed up. The time for idle 
promises is over. It is now time for action.
  I therefore call upon the United States Trade Representative to 
sanction Japan for maintaining its ban on U.S. beef. The United States 
should impose sanctions on Japanese products imported into the United 
States in an amount equal to the losses suffered by the U.S. beef and 
cattle industries.
  This is a blunt instrument. But it appears to be the only recourse 
left. I will no longer sit by and watch Japan flout its international 
trade obligations behind the smokescreen that it is engaged in a 
lengthy ``process'' to lift the ban.
  Sanctioning Japan without resort to WTO dispute settlement is not 
ideal. It's not how the WTO is supposed to work. But U.S. beef 
producers should not be forced to wait the years it would take to 
complete a WTO case. They have waited long enough. I will not wring my 
hands over legal niceties when the livelihoods of ranchers in Montana 
and across the United States are at stake.
  In my experience, the only thing that will get the Japanese to act is 
leverage. And sanctions are leverage.
  We have been here before. In the late 1980s, Japan kept its market 
almost entirely closed to U.S. beef. U.S. beef producers were permitted 
to export only six ounces per Japanese citizen per year, a piddling 
amount. The excuse then was that Japanese intestines were somehow 
``different'' and therefore unsuitable to digesting American beef.
  I didn't accept that ridiculous excuse. Instead, I pushed hard for 
legislation that would penalize Japanese imports. Soon thereafter, the 
Japanese opened their market to U.S. beef.
  And I don't accept this excuse.

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