What do beef exports to Japan and North Korean nukes have to do with each other?

Not much except that Secretary of State Condolezza Rice felt that Japanese reluctance to allow imports of U.S. beef in the wake of the discovery of mad cow disease in the United States was worth talking about on the same trip that deals with the nuclear threat from North Korea and human rights in China. The Japanese have a 100 percent testing policy for cattle, and it's no wonder they don't trust that the United States has safe beef when our tests cover only 1/10th of one percent of all U. S. cattle slaughtered each year. As I suggested in an earlier post the Japanese have merely been pretending to cooperate with the Americans and are dragging their feet on purpose in negotiations aimed at reopening Japan to U. S. beef imports. That's, of course, precisely what Rice is accusing them of and it's taken the administration five months to notice. Look for more stalling and more excuses from the Japanese. They really don't want this stuff in their supermarkets.

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