Japan and the United States agreed on Saturday to resume imports of some American beef, halted since December after a case of mad cow disease in Washington state, but did not set a date for restarting trade.
Before the ban, Japan was the top market for US beef, buying some $1.4 billion a year.
The first high-level talks on the issue in six months produced a framework deal on beef with birth records showing an age up to 20 months. Younger cattle are believed by scientists to carry the lowest risk of the illness. But the two sides failed to reach a deal on how to determine the age of animals without birth records, leaving the bulk of US beef shipments to Japan on hold.
Cattle with birth records account for about only 10 percent of all American cattle, a Japanese Agriculture Ministry official said.
"We have been able to conclude a framework agreement that will permit the resumption of trade in beef and beef products between our two countries," US Agriculture Under-secretary J.B. Penn told reporters after the meeting.
The meeting of senior officials from both countries had been scheduled to end on Friday, but the talks were extended due to disagreement on how to identify the age of American cattle.
Japan records the date of birth of all domestic cattle, but the United States has no such system, and it is difficult to determine a precise age.
At the meeting US officials said they could estimate the age of cattle by checking the maturity of meat and bones. But Japanese officials said the method was not accurate enough. The two countries will continue expert-level talks to find out a way to determine cattle age, aiming for a deal within 45 days, Japanese officials said.
Penn said age would be determined by either production records or physiological examination.
Penn added that the United States would remove specific risk material from all cattle before the meat is shipped to Japan.
Japanese officials said they were not sure when beef trade would restart, but said imports could resume before July 2005.
Japan can resume US beef imports after the government obtains an approval for a new mad cow test policy from Japan's Food Safety Commission and revises domestic rules and regulations.
Japan is awaiting final approval from the commission for its plan to exclude animals aged 20 months or younger from its policy of blanket-testing all cattle for mad cow disease - formally called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
At the meeting, US officials said they wanted the 20-month threshold to be a tentative condition to allow the resumption of beef trade between the two countries.
The limit, they said, should eventually be raised to the internationally accepted level of 30 months.
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