Japan says lifts ban on US beef imports from Thursday

TOKYO, July 27 (Reuters) Japan said it had formally decided to allow U S beef imports, suspended for the past six months, to restart from today from all but one of 35 U S beef processing plants authorised by the U S government as suppliers to Japan.

Japan's decision will take effect later in the day after it notifies the United States, a government official said.

The decision came after the government concluded, based on a report from Japanese inspectors, that most of the authorised U S beef plants had no problems complying with Japan's safety requirements.

Japan requires U.S. suppliers not to export beef from animals older than 20 months, and to eliminate specified risk materials suspected of spreading mad cow disease, such as spinal cords, before shipment.

Japan suspended U S beef imports on January 20, just a month after it had lifted a two-year-old ban on U S beef imposed due to concerns about mad cow disease, when Japanese inspectors found banned cattle parts in a veal shipment from a New York company.

Japan's ban has been one of the thorniest economic issues between Tokyo and Washington, as Japan had previously been the largest export market for U S beef.

Japan bought 240,000 tonnes of U S beef valued at 1.4 billion dollars in 2003, before the ban was imposed in December of that year following the discovery of the first U S case of mad cow disease.

The Japanese inspectors were in the United States from June 24 to July 22, in line with a June agreement between the two governments that U S beef shipments to Japan would restart after Japan inspected the authorised beef plants.

Japan will keep a ban on imports from one plant, now changing its operations manual, until the government confirms the final contents of the manual.

The government will accept beef imports from one of the other plants on condition that the U.S. government puts the processor under close watch. The plant had shipped beef to Japan from cattle slaughtered before it was authorised by the U S government as a supplier.

Japan will allow immediate imports from the remaining 33 plants to restart with no additional conditions.

REUTERS DKB VV1018