The office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced changes to Japan’s beef safeguard under which higher import tariffs can be imposed on U.S. beef.
The U.S. and Japanese governments will now work to finalize and implement the new provisions. U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) President and CEO Dan Halstrom talked about these safeguard changes.
?This announcement on the safeguard is wonderful news,? Halstrom said. ?The Japan – U.S. ag agreement that went into force in 2020 was a great agreement, but this safeguard provision was a definite speed bump. The fact that we have a resolution coming is great news in the sense that if we have equal access with our competitors around the world, the U.S. will continue to be very competitive. USTR has basically negotiated a three-tier mechanism or three trigger levels, the first one being the imports from the U.S. must exceed the original trigger level under the US Japan Trade Agreement. The second one being that the aggregate volume of beef imports from the U.S. and the other CPTPP countries must exceed the CPTPP beef safeguard level. And then final one is imports from the U.S. must exceed total beef imports from the previous year. The real one that’s significant there is a second one because by having that CPTPP level in aggregate, it gives us some breathing room from where we otherwise would be.?
Halstrom also noted that competition in Japan will further intensify later this year as Australia’s beef production rebounds, which adds to the urgency of these safeguard changes.
?Japan is one of our largest value markets, one of our best customers going back for decades,? Halstrom said. ?But it’s always a competitive market. In 2021 we probably had some tailwinds in the fact that the production out of Australia was limited, the cattle cycle was such that they had less cattle available and they also had some flooding which limited the amount of cattle going to market. That’s undoubtedly going to change in 2022. We’re forecasting especially in the second half of this year that there will be more cattle available for slaughter, and of course Japan’s one of their largest markets as well. So the timing of this agreement couldn’t be better because we need to be on a level playing field to take on our largest competitors like Australia.?
For more information, visit USMEF.org.
