The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) recently reported on the status of its consultations with Japan aimed at adjusting Japan’s safeguard trigger levels for imports of U.S. beef. U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) President and CEO Dan Halstrom says there is an urgency to amend that threshold as Japan’s imports of U.S. beef exceeded that level in March 2021, triggering the higher 38.5-percent tariff.
He says the next round of beef tariff rate reductions under the Japan-U.S. trade agreement is set for April 1. But unless the safeguard threshold for beef is adjusted, the higher rate could be triggered again.
Halstrom says the U.S. is at a disadvantage to export competitors that are members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership which will see a lower tariff rate.
Halstrom emphasizes that this distorts the market by putting U.S. beef at a price disadvantage, while also causing some importers to delay purchases to avoid the period in which the higher rate is in effect.
