Japan took another step toward easing a 17-month-old ban on U.S. beef imports on Tuesday when the government asked food regulators to study the feasibility of partially lifting the prohibition. The Agriculture and Health ministries told the Food Safety Commission to start examining whether it is safe to reopen Japan's market to American beef for the first time since the December 2003 discovery of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease, said Agriculture Ministry official Katsuhiro Saka, according to AP. The commission recommended earlier this month that the government waive mad cow disease tests for domestic cattle younger than 21 months, seen as a move to lay groundwork toward resumption of imports of beef from younger American cattle. The commission's mad cow panel is expected to start deliberation as early as this week on whether American beef is as safe as Japanese beef, Saka said. «We asked the panel to evaluate whether American beef products satisfy our domestic safety standards in case we resume imports,» he said. --More 1415 Local Time 1115 GMT
