(MENAFN) China announced Friday it is set to finalize plans soon to reinstate a long-paused agreement that will allow Japanese beef exports to enter the Chinese market for the first time in 24 years, media reported.

During a meeting in Osaka, China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng informed Hiroshi Moriyama, secretary general of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, about the upcoming activation of this trade arrangement.

He Lifeng’s visit coincided with his attendance at the 2025 World Expo, as confirmed by diplomatic sources cited by media.

The cooperation pact on animal health and quarantine between Japan and China was originally signed in 2019, intending to overturn the ban imposed following Japan’s 2001 mad cow disease outbreak. However, the deal’s implementation was stalled due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This development comes shortly after China partially eased a multi-year ban on Japanese seafood imports last month. That seafood ban was initially enforced after Tokyo Electric Power Company began discharging treated radioactive wastewater from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean in August 2023.

Additionally, on Thursday in Kuala Lumpur, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed to expedite the activation of the animal health and quarantine cooperation agreement, according to Japan’s Foreign Ministry.

This signals a significant thaw in trade relations between the two countries amid ongoing diplomatic dialogues.

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