LDP Moriyama, Chinese Vice Premier Apparently Discuss Beef Trade

   Osaka, July 11 (Jiji Press)--Japanese ruling party executive Hiroshi Moriyama and visiting Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng held talks in the western Japan city of Osaka on Friday, apparently focusing on beef trade.
   Moriyama, secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party and also head of a suprapartisan group of Japanese lawmakers promoting Japan-China friendship, is believed to have been briefed on the possible enforcement of an animal health and quarantine agreement necessary for China's resumption of beef imports from Japan.
   The Japanese side hopes to advance final adjustment to restart beef exports to China.
   China has been banning Japanese beef imports since the outbreak of mad cow disease, formally called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, in Japan, in 2001. The Japanese and Chinese governments signed the animal health and quarantine agreement in 2019, but the Chinese side's procedures to put it into effect have been suspended.
   At a meeting in Peru in November last year, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to resume imports.

(2025/07/11-14:20)