Special Report

Vilsack refutes Johanns’ remarks on Japan

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says it’s partly the former administration’s fault for the difficulty his administration is having in getting Japan to lift its partial ban on U.S. beef. Last Friday, Republican U.S. Senator and previous Ag Secretary Mike Johanns, told AgriTalk that the current administration has not done enough, as the Bush administration had, in trying to reopen those markets. At a news conference hours later at Commodity Classic in California, Vilsack was asked about Johanns’ remark and reacted with mock surprise, “Really? He said that? Nah, he didn’t really say that, did he? Nah, he couldn’t possibly have said that.”

Vilsack said Johanns surely is aware that Vilsack will be going to Japan in April, and, “He would obviously know that we’ve had ongoing discussions with the Japanese. He would obviously know that we were dealing with the previous administration’s approach to Japan which was a non-starter which was that they had to reopen the entire market. And, it’s very apparent they’re not willing to do that.”

Vilsack says the Bush administration agreed with the Koreans that the U.S. would not offer any better deal to any other country in order to reopen markets, “Not only do we have to take a different approach than the previous administration under Secretary Johanns, in terms of Japanese beef, but we also have to think about how it relates to the Korean beef agreement which complicates things very, very much. So, I just can’t believe Senator Johanns would say that because if he knew all that he wouldn’t have said it.”

Johanns’ comment followed his remarks last week at a Senate committee hearing that it might be time to tell the Japanese to drop their beef restrictions or expect to have Japanese-produced Toyotas treated the same way.