- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China
has joined other nations in suspending U.S. beef imports after the discovery
of the first U.S. case of the deadly mad cow disease, authorities said
Thursday.
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- "China will temporarily ban imports of U.S. cattle
and cow products. This does not include milk, milk products, leather and
gelatin," the Agriculture Ministry and quarantine bureau said in a
joint statement in Shanghai.
-
- Total U.S. beef imports to China are estimated to rise
by 11 percent to 30,000 tons in 2004, according to U.S. figures. About
10 percent of U.S. beef is exported.
-
- Japan, Mexico and South Korea, the top buyers of U.S.
beef, halted imports after the case was disclosed Tuesday in a huge blow
for the $27 billion U.S. cattle industry.
-
- Other countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Australia,
Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia, Ukraine and South Africa, have followed suit.
Canada imposed a partial ban In Tokyo, Japanese stocks inched lower. Analysts
placed the blame on disappointing U.S. economic data and the case of mad
cow disease.
-
- "Weak economic data, worries about possible terror
attacks and mad cow. These are negative factors holding the market back."
said Tatsuyuki Kawasaki, director of equities trading at Kaneyama Securities.
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- Yoshinoya D&C Co and other beef-related shares continued
to slide.
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- Yoshinoya, a beef-bowl restaurant chain operator that
gets 99 percent of its beef from the United States, fell 2.6 percent, extending
Tuesday's 9.41 percent slide.
-
- The dollar was stuck near record lows versus the euro
in Tokyo. It was sitting at $1.24 per euro.
-
- "The euro's jump was largely due to the mad cow
scare and the disappointing figures coming out of the U.S., but it also
had to do with geopolitical risks as well," said Junya Tanase, global
markets officer at JP Morgan Chase.
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- In Washington state, public health investigators combed
a tiny town to pinpoint the cause of the potentially fatal disease after
a single 4-year-old Holstein cow tested positive. The animal has been traced
to a dairy farm near the town of Mabton.
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