Category Archives: Trade Talks

  Japan and Australia reached a basic accord on an economic partnership agreement on Monday, April 7, making it Japan’s first agreement with a major exporting nation of agricultural products. While the two nations agreed on the most controversial issue of tariffs on beef, the tariffs will be reduced gradually over a long period of time and Japan will be allowed to take a safeguard measure of raising the tariffs to the original level if imports exceed a certain level. This virtually means low tariffs will be applied only to imports within a certain quota. Such measures reflect the Japanあese government’s intention to minimize the impact of beef imports on … Continue reading →

  Hirobumi Senbongi Kumamoto As negotiators work to conclude the Japan-Australia economic partnership agreement, domestic cattle breeders are increasingly worried about the impact of possible reduction in tariffs on Australian beef. In Kumamoto Prefecture, a major beef production area, prices of Japanese brown cattle plummeted after the liberalization of Japan’s beef market in 1991 followed by reduction in tariffs on beef imports. As a result, the number of Japanese brown cattle raised in the prefecture dropped more than 80 percent compared with the time before the liberalization, and the number of beef producers also declined by 80 percent. Farmers, who had gone through such experience in the past, are strongly … Continue reading →