restrictions related to fmd in july 2012 argentina expressed concerns about japans undue delay in responding to argentinas requests for recognition as an fmd-free area without vaccination and japans failure to open its market to deboned fresh and mature beef meat. argentinas first request dated to april 2003. after no response in march 2004 argentina submitted to japans ministry of agriculture fishery and forestry maff a specific report concerning the fmd-free area without vaccination and a technical proposal for risk mitigation in the import of meat from fmd-free areas with vaccination. japan refused to address both subjects at the same time and instead proposed to first focus on the recognition of the fmd-free area without vaccination and afterwards discuss the exportation from the fmd-free area with vaccination. in june 2005 argentina sent a technical mission to japan to formally request recognition as an fmd-free area in line with article 6 of the sps agreement. on that occasion the maff authorities stated i the need to conduct a technical mission of experts from the national institute of animal health to argentina which took place in december 2007 and ii that argentina had to reply to a lengthy questionnaire which was only received after more than three years in december 2008 and which among other things proposed to follow eight steps to advance the procedure including that of carrying out a risk analysis for both areas . in january 2010 argentina had replied to the questionnaire for the risk analysis of the fmd-free area without vaccination submitting additional technical information. since then no replies had been received from japan to enquiries meetings and notes submitted on several occasions during 2010 and 2011. argentina was officially recognized by the oie as a country free of fmd with three areas one area fmd-free without vaccination patagonia and two areas fmd-free with vaccination north region and the border region . in spite of this fact and despite the intense efforts undertaken for almost ten years japan had not yet formally recognized these areas. bearing this in mind and considering articles 2.2 5.1 3 6 and 8 among other provisions of the sps agreement argentina requested that japan conclude without undue delay the on-going proceedings in line with the international standards. japan responded that an additional questionnaire would soon be sent to argentina to request further information necessary for the development of a risk assessment. japans sps measures were based on a risk assessment taking into account the oie terrestrial animal health code and the disease-free status officially recognized by the oie. it was important to take fully into account the available scientific evidence and to ensure transparency in the process of risk assessment and japan would continue to work closely with argentina to resolve this issue. in october 2013 argentina referred to its position taken in july 2012 and reiterated its call for a prompt solution to the matter. japan explained that it was completing an import risk analysis in accordance with the standard approval procedures consisting of 12 steps. argentinas beef was at ste three and japan was waiting for additional inputs from argentina.