Thomas Mott Osborne: “I also would like to congratulate Mr. Dingell. Mr. Dingell lockers next to me in the House gym, and I see him…”

“I also would like to congratulate Mr. Dingell. Mr. Dingell lockers next to me in the House gym, and I see him occasionally, and I appreciate the fact that he gets down there on occasion, and we get a chance to talk. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Japanese border was opened to U.S. beef trade. This was good news. This border had been closed since December 2003. In 2003, we exported $1.4 billion in beef to Japan. Since that time, the border has been closed, and we have lost over $3 billion in trade. Regaining the market is not going to be easy. Australia has filled much of the void that was created by this ban on U.S. beef. We also must restore confidence in U.S. beef in Japan. I think roughly two-thirds of the Japanese public are saying that they are not sure that they want to eat beef from the United States. And of course, we have a very safe supply. We also must ship beef from cows 20 months of age or younger, and to verify that age is going to be difficult because we do not have an animal ID program which is critical for this country. So we hope that this trade can be restored rather quickly. Over the last year or two, much of the focus on trade issues, particularly in regard to agriculture, has been in regard to the Canadian border and also Japan. But as far as I am concerned, Mr. Speaker, the major issue regarding agricultural trade is not Japan. It is not Canada. It is being played out to some degree this week in WTO talks in China.…”