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US and Japan reach agreement on beef safeguard
The United States and Japan have reached an agreement to increase the beef safeguard trigger level to prevent a higher tariff from being imposed on US beef.
During a call with reporters, Assistant US Trade Representative for Agriculture Affairs and Commodity Policy Julie Callahan says it is a win for both countries.
“It will allow American farmers and ranchers to meet Japan’s growing demand for high quality US beef and will also reduce the probability that Japan will impose higher tariffs on US beef in the future.”
She says they’ve spent a year working on the new safeguard threshold that would require three triggers to be hit before Japan could impose the higher tariff on US beef.
She says the first of those being that imports for US beef must exceed the original beef safeguard trigger level under the US Japan Trade Agreement. Second, the aggregate volume of beef imports from the US plus the original signatories of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement must exceed the CPTPP beef safeguard trigger volume. And third, imports form the US must exceed the total amount of beef imports from the US into Japan during the previous year.
Callahan says the agreement helps put the US on a level playing field with countries in the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.
“It puts US beef producers on the same level as all of the other countries that are also good trading partners with Japan for beef, like Australia and others.”
The bilateral trade agreement signed between the US and Japan in 2019 did reduce tariffs on US beef over the next 15 years, but the safeguard threshold wasn’t addressed. Japan’s imports of US beef exceeded the safeguard threshold in 2021 and triggered a higher tariff rate of 38.5%, up from 25.8% on US beef muscle cuts.
She says both governments are working to finalize the text of the agreement as quickly as possible.
