Japan and the United States remained far apart on measures to test for mad cow disease but the two sides managed to agree Saturday to set up a working team of experts to work toward lifting Japan's import ban on U.S. beef as early as this summer.
The ban is squeezing Japan's food industry and keeping American beef from its biggest export market.
The working team will try to agree on what constitutes an adequate testing regimen to ensure safe beef processing, Japanese officials said after the one-day bilateral meeting in Tokyo. The meeting was the first formal negotiations on the issue since January.