Meat and Livestock Australia reports the discovery is another blow to the US's trade with Japan, where traders are willing to push US beef sales to take advantage of the recent appreciation of the Japanese yen against the US dollar.

MLA says the news did not stop the retail giant Aeon Group from announcing the re-launch of US beef in their supermarket chains from May.

But major retailers, such as Daiei, have removed beef imported from the banned US packer.

Although there had been several violations of the current import protocols by other US meat plants, this was the first SRM case since the resumption of US beef imports in July 2006.

Japan's agricultural Minister Wakabayashi expressed his disappointment, but also noted that Japan/US beef trade conditions are being reviewed based on scientific assessment, regardless of this incident.

Both the government and business in Japan have quickly responded to this non-compliance issue.

The frequency of random Japanese quarantine checks on US beef has been stepped up, and the new measure is expected to continue until full investigation reports are received from the US.

Retailers Daiei and Maruetsu immediately removed beef sourced from the banned plant.

Seiyu, another major retailer, suspended purchases from the plant.

Uny, a regional supermarket chain, stopped sales of all US beef (Uny later resumed sales after confirming the government’s inspection upgrade).

In contrast, Aeon was undeterred by the incident, making an announcement the next day that they will resume sales of US beef, as it reportedly has established a "dual check system" on all US imports with a safety certification endorsed by a third party.

SOURCE: Meat and Livestock Australia