It Actually Happened

<a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/J/JAPAN_US_BEEF?SITE=MTBIL&SECTION=BUSINESS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">Japan lifts ban on U.S. beef imports</a><br />n<br />n<blockquote>apan on Thursday announced the resumption of U.S. beef imports, ending a ban imposed in January due to concerns about mad cow disease that had strained ties with Washington.<br />n<br />nU.S. Ambassador Thomas Schieffer immediately welcomed the move, which reopens Japan's lucrative market to a select list of American meat exporters, saying that it resolved an issue of primary importance to the United States.</blockquote><br />n<br />nI have been reading all week, story after story about how this was going to happen. I really got tired of reading the story. I was just waiting for the announcment that it did happen, and it fisnlly came this morning. I really and truly thought Japan would weasel out and not open the market back up. I was wrong.<br />n<br />nOpening the market was the easy part, now it's time to build market share, that's the hard part.<br />n<br />n<strong>Reality is easy. It's deception that's the hard work. Lauryn Hill</strong>