Back from Asia, Daines talks trade, North Korea

Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines said in a telephone press conference Monday that he is confident a longtime Chinese ban on U.S beef imports will be lifted within a few months.

Daines said he raised the issue of ending the 14-year-old ban on U.S beef products with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and National People's Congress Chairman Zhang Dejiang during a congressional delegation visit to Beijing he led last week.

The visit came a week after President Donald Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping April 7 at his Mar-a-Largo estate in Florida, where the issue was included in a 100 day plan of action agreed to by both leaders.

"I'm confident we will see some action on this because we are now engaged at the highest levels of their government and telling them this is a very important issue to the government of the United States," Daines said.

When Daines met with Li, he said, he presented him with four Montana steaks provided by Fred Wacker, a Miles City rancher, along with a photo of Wacker and his ranch to emphasize the importance of opening Chinese markets to U.S beef.

China halted U.S beef imports in 2003 after reports that a cow in the U.S contracted bovine spongiform encephalopathy, widely  known as mad cow disease.

The ban cut U.S beef producers off from China, the world's second-largest consumer of beef and Montana's third-biggest trade partner.

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture announced in September they would lift the ban, but, Daines said, some issues need to be addressed related to traceability, - the ability to trace food through all production stages - and issues related to food  hormones.

Daines said the Chinese are also waiting to move forward until Sonny Perdue, Trump's nominee to be secretary of agriculture, is confirmed.

Perdue's nomination is expected to be taken up next week when the Senate returns from Easter recess.

Trade with Japan

Daines rounded out his Asian tour with stops in Japan, Tibet and Hong Kong, he said.

In Japan, Daines said, he met with Chief Cabinet Secretary for Japan Yoshihide Suga and Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko about a possible bilateral trade agreement with the U.S.

The trip laid the groundwork for a visit by Vice President Mike Pence today.

Daines said the Japanese had been disappointed that the U.S decided not to approve the Trans Pacific Partnership, a proposed trade pact between the U.S and 11 pacific rim nations that would have comprised 45 percent of global trade.

Approving the agreement was a top priority for the Obama administration but was opposed by Trump, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and some members of Congress from both parties.

Daines said he told the Japanese not expect any further action by the U.S on the TPP, something they were disappointed about.

Instead, there was talk about a possible bilateral agreement that would allow both nations  to move forward on issues such as adjusting tariffs that could be beneficial to U.S agriculture producers, he said.

North Korea

In discussions with Asian nations  in the region, the threat presented by an increasingly belligerent North Korea was a point of discussion, Daines said.

The Trump administration has recently deployed the Carl Vinision nuclear carrier to waters off the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea has often launched short-range missiles but is also working to develop long and medium-range missiles to which a nuclear warhead could be attached that could hit its neighbors and eventually the U.S. mainland.

Daines said the U.S. and its allies are looking to send North Korea the message that its actions will not be tolerated and persuade China, North Korea's largest trade partner, to exert pressure on them through banking sanctions as well as sanctions on oil and coal.

Daines added that Japan and China also feel comforted by what he called Trump's decisiveness in foreign policy demonstrated through recent military strikes in Syria and Afghanistan.

"We have a president now that, I think, is regaining the respect of the rest of the world and our allies through his leadership," Daines said.

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Information from The Associated Press was used in this story