JAPAN

JAPAN
Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, Dec. 12: Beef imports from the United States and Canada will resume for the first time in two years since the outbreak of mad cow disease in North America.
The commission added an unusual condition, demanding regular on-site inspections of beef-processing facilities in the United States and Canada. The commission recommends the Japanese government temporarily stop imports if evidence of inadequate management arises.
Needless to say, it is the U.S. and Canadian governments that are responsible for observing the conditions.
At the same time, BSE has highlighted the weaknesses in Japan's food safety management.
External influence
While the food safety panel has been praised for being transparent and for disclosing all discussions, the secretariat is mostly made up of bureaucrats sent by the agriculture and health ministries, and is susceptible to external influence.
The process for communicating risks and exchanging opinions between consumers, producers, researchers, media and other parties is still immature. Continuing efforts are essential, including training specialists to explain difficult issues in plain language.
DENMARK
Berlingske Tidende, Copenhagen, Dec. 13: The budget dispute paints a picture of a European Union with problems finding the common ground on anything. Individual nations and groups of countries are so busy clinging to their narrow agendas that they don't consider what a united Europe could be.
The EU should use the break it took after the European constitution stalled this summer to do just that. The debate (on a broader European agenda) seems to have largely been absent. Instead, the union's political leaders have seized on one of the few issues not stalled by the "stop button" and turned it into another miserable affair for the EU.
New budget
One should never say never. Maybe the EU countries will agree this week on a new budget. Maybe the result will be good.
But unfortunately, it so far seems that any great European willingness is sorely lacking.
ISRAEL
The Jerusalem Post, Dec. 11: By signing -- under intense pressure from the Quartet -- the post-disengagement Rafah agreement on Nov. 15 with the Palestinian Authority, Israel committed itself not only to an international crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border, but to facilitating the movement of goods and people between the Palestinian territories.
Specifically, Jerusalem promised that by Dec. 15 it would allow bus convoys to transit Gaza and the West Bank.
Sure enough, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is having second thoughts about the Thursday deadline -- and for good reason. The daily prospect of some 1,800 Palestinians traversing between Gaza and the West Bank is worrisome in the context of the grim security situation and Israel's sense that the PA is not living up to the spirit of Rafah.
Trepidation
Israel entered into the Rafah agreement with trepidation. But Washington's arm-twisting convinced Jerusalem that cameras and computer data streams would give Israeli security personnel capability to monitor what was happening at the Gaza-Sinai crossing.
The World Bank complains that Israel's repeated closures have made it difficult for Palestinians to do business among themselves and with the outside world. The Bank argues that the Palestinian economy has not bounced back to its 1999 pre-intifada levels, and blames Israel.
But the Bank's complaint is misdirected. Had the PA fulfilled its road map obligations and dismantled the terrorist infrastructure, the Palestinian economy and population would not be hampered by closures.