U.S. close to resuming beef trade with China

U.S. close to resuming beef trade with China    After two days of talks in Beijing, the U.S. government said it’s close to resuming beef exports to China.
   “We’ve made considerable progress with China during these discussions to reopen their market to U.S. beef, and we will meet again soon to conclude the talks,” said U.S. Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services J.B. Penn in a statement Monday.
   U.S. officials also developed a “memorandum of cooperation” to address ongoing food safety concerns between the two countries, Penn said.
   China, like many countries, closed its borders to U.S. beef imports in December 2003 after the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or “mad cow” disease, in a Washington state cow.
   U.S. officials will not travel to Japan to continue discussions on the resumption of U.S. beef sales to Japan.