The United States will not test all slaughtered cattle for mad cow disease as Tokyo requests, but may consider some "procedures" specifically for the Japanese market, a visiting U.S. delegation examining Japan's beef import ban said Thursday.
"The question is whether (a solution) is practical, or whether that's the best use of scarce resources," J.B. Penn, U.S. Farm & Foreign Agricultural Services undersecretary, said in Tokyo ahead of negotiations Friday with Japan's agriculture and health officials.
Testing all 35 million cattle slaughtered yearly in the U.S. would mean an additional cost of $1.5 billion to the industry, delegates said.