North Dakota politicians and cattle industry officials say Japan's conditional agreement to lift a ban on U.S. beef imports is good news, but they also are skeptical the country will soon be accepting American beef.

"It almost sounds a little bit like another ploy to stall," said Melvin Leland, who ranches in southwest McKenzie County. "Hopefully, this new hope is real and will happen fairly rapidly. I think we're starting to lose a little confidence in the whole issue, because it's been delayed and prolonged so much."

Leland, who serves as president of the North Dakota Stockmen's Association, said Japan's conditions "raise the question of whether or not they trust our system."

"Through the whole negotiations to get these borders reopened, they have required the U.S. negotiators to make a lot of concessions that probably shouldn't have been necessary," he said. "When you stop to analyze the science behind meat safety and the whole issue related to (mad cow), Japan has had far more (mad cow cases) than the United States."

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said the agreement reached with U.S. negotiators was "encouraging," but he expressed reservations that Japan might drag its feet.

He said that after Japan agreed to reopen its borders to U.S. beef in October 2004 following a shutdown after the 2003 discovery of mad cow disease in Washington state, 14 months passed before the country actually accepted imports of American beef.

"It's a good sign that Japan has agreed to accept U.S. beef imports again, but we can't wait another 14 months for relief for American ranchers," Dorgan said. "Japan's ban on American beef has gone on far too long, despite the fact that our cattle industry has bent over backwards to reassure them that we have the safest, healthiest beef in the world."

Dorgan joined Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., in introducing legislation that calls for sanctions if Japan does not lift the ban by Aug. 31.

"Our goal is a resumption of trade - not promises that trade may resume," Conrad said.

"We've had promises made before that have turned up empty," he said. "We're going to keep up the pressure until American ranchers have access to Japan's market again."

Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., said Japan "needs to match their words with action."

"American beef is safe and Japan knows it," he said.

Dorgan said the ban costs U.S. ranchers $100 million in lost export opportunities every month. Leland said anything that affects the cattle industry nationally impacts North Dakota.

"Any time we can export beef value to a foreign country, it offsets the low-value product that is being imported to use as a mixing product for hamburger and some of our fast-food industry," he said.

"At this point we have a negative balance of trade on that," Leland said. "It would be nice to get some type of export movement going so we can at least get a little closer to a value balance."