This blog contains posts and comments written by students in Dr. Tufte's economics classes at Southern Utah University.
2/23/2005
Mad Cow
Japan imposed a ban on the beef imported from the United States when the first case of mad cow disease came around in December 2003. Japan and the United States have been discussing business to renegotiate the international trade between the two countries. Before the mad cow disease case, Japan was the most lucrative overseas market for the United States in beef producers. It amounted to be about $1.7 billion in beef. Just lately the Japanese agreed to do more business with the United States by importing U.S. grade A40 beef. This classification of beef falls into the category of cattle aged 12 to 17 months. Before mad cow disease, the age of the cattle had not been an issue. The United States are more than willing to cooperated with these new guidelines in order to revive the business with the Japanese.
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3 comments:
In this case the Japanese are the customers and if you want to sale you have to make them happy.
Japan is a very populated country, and the U.S. would be wise to rekindle the lucrative relationship that once existed. Many people there obviously like to eat beef or it would have never been a profitable venture in the first place, so give them what they want. BEEF, ITS WHATS FOR DINNER!
It's a goal of all business schools tha when you read something like this, the first thing you think of is that it is a cover for protectionism.
I don't want to seem callous here about a horrible disease.
But the fact remains that almost no one worldwide has ever contracted this. When you compare it to real dangers like car accidents, the flu, smoking, and so on, it is just really unimportant. Nasty, but not a big deal for rational people.
It's worse in this case because they Japanese banned beef imports because of a cow, not because anyone was actually sick.
If you put this all together, what you have is a giant slap at an American industry, using an excuse that doesn't hold water. I fill in the blank with protectionism as the underlying cause.
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