John Block Reports from Washington

We have a breakthrough on beef trade with Japan.

It has been almost a year since we discovered one cow that tested positive for BSE. That one cow shut the door on our exports of beef around the world. Since then we have been negotiating with the Japanese to arrive at a testing protocol that would satisfy them.

Now, thanks to the efforts of Secretary of Agriculture, Ann Veneman, and President Bush the door is opening just a crack. I say that because anyone that thinks the Japanese could make an absolute decision on anything is dreaming. Their deliberation process takes forever. When I was Secretary of Ag in the early 80's, we could not sell beef or citrus to Japan. We wanted to break into that market; negotiations were a marathon of meetings. The only way to get there was one tedious step at a time. I didn't have the patience myself. I had others work on the process. But in the end we did open the market. And it has been a great market for u.S. Agriculture.

So don't be surprised if it takes longer than we might hope to return to normal trade relations with Japan.

This is sad because our beef is safe -- risk is zero. One cow does not mean anything. There are other health problems in this country that are huge. Why waste precious time and resources on a non-existent threat.

Beef trade with Japan has even broader implications. With Japan's announcement to resume trade, Taiwan said they were ready to trade. Countries all over the Asian Pacific have been waiting for the Japanese's signal.

We are not blameless ourselves. We need to open the door to beef trade with Canada; they only found one bad cow. The North American trading system needs to be put back on track.

Countries all over the world should be more responsible when a problem is detected. Don't be stampeded my sensational press. Rely on science and correct the problem.

Until next week, I am John Block from Washington.