WASHINGTON (Kyodo) U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Tuesday the United States is willing to provide additional information regarding the beef issue in line with Japan's requests, saying he is not surprised by the "typical" request from Tokyo.
Johanns made the comments after his Japanese counterpart, Shoichi Nakagawa, said Monday that Japan views a U.S. report submitted Friday on how banned backbone material found its way into a veal shipment last month as "insufficient" and plans to make additional inquiries with Washington.
"We're not surprised by the response that they want additional information," Johanns told reporters after addressing a farm forum. "That is very typical with Japan."