US and Japan sign agreement to improve access for US red meat

The Governments of the US and Japan have signed a trade agreement, which is expected to improve access for US red meat imports to Japan.

Once the US-Japan Trade Agreement is implemented, Japan will provide significant market access for food and agricultural products manufactured in the US by eliminating or reducing tariffs, or by allowing a specific quantity of imports at a low duty.

The deal is expected to improve the competitiveness of US producers with other countries that currently have preferential tariffs in the Japanese market under country-specific quotas (CSQs).

US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said: “This agreement between the US and Japan is a better deal for the entire US economy, but is a particularly big win for our farmers and ranchers.

“This agreement helps level the playing field. I thank President Trump and Ambassador Lighthizer for delivering on their promise to open markets around the world for America’s farmers and ranchers.”

Last year, Japan imported $14.1bn worth US food and agricultural products, of which $5.2bn were already duty-free.

Under the agreement, Japan has committed to remove or reduce tariffs on an additional $7.2bn of US food and agricultural products.

Furthermore, it will reduce tariffs in stages on products such as fresh and frozen beef, as well as fresh and frozen pork, and eliminate tariffs on certain US farm products, including almonds, blueberries, cranberries, walnuts, sweet corn, grain sorghum, food supplements, broccoli and prunes.

US agricultural products that will benefit from staged tariff elimination in Japan, including wine, cheese and whey, ethanol, frozen poultry, processed pork, fresh cherries, beef offal, frozen potatoes, oranges, egg products and tomato paste.

Japan has also agreed to provide preferential market access for some US products through the creation of CSQs, which include wheat products, malt, glucose, fructose, corn starch, potato starch and inulin.

The US Government has agreed to eliminate or reduce tariffs on 42 agricultural imports from Japan valued at $40m last year.

The products include certain perennial plants and cut flowers, persimmons, green tea, chewing gum, certain confectionary products and soy sauce.

Additionally, the US Government has agreed to modify its global WTO tariff-rate quota for imports of Japanese beef, allowing the beef producers to compete for a larger share of the global TRQ quantity.