US 'aggressive' in reopening beef trade: Bush

[leftchick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060123/pl_nm/madcow_bush_dc_2

MANHATTAN, Kansas (Reuters) - The United States will be aggressive in reopening markets to American beef and assuring foreign buyers there is no danger of mad cow disease, President George W. Bush said on Monday.

Bush said he wanted to "make sure we're treated fairly" in beef exports. Exports used to consume 10 percent of U.S. beef output and are recovering slowly from sales bans that followed discovery of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease in late 2003.

"We have got to be aggressive about explaining to people why our beef is safe," Bush said, when asked by Kansas rancher Jan Lyons about a new interruption in exports. Lyons is the former head of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, a trade group for cattle ranchers.

Japan suspended U.S. beef imports on Friday when its inspectors found spinal material in a shipment of veal. The material was not allowed under a U.S.-Japan agreement that opened the Japanese market last month after a two-year hiatus.