Akira Amari, minister in charge of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks, denied on Thursday, April 10, media reports that Japan is considering cutting tariffs on American beef from the current 38.5 percent to below 10 percent.
Amari told reporters before meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman for the second day that no specific tariff rates have been discussed.
Concerning the ongoing Japan-U.S. bilateral negotiations on the TPP talks, Amari said the U.S. side is only referring to the basic principles of abolishing tariffs without exceptions and has not mentioned any specific figures.
A senior official of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries also denied the reports, saying that such idea is absurd and it is vanishingly unlikely for the government to consider such rates.
A Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker with close links to the agriculture industry pointed out that if tariffs on American beef are reduced to such a low level, Japan will have to renegotiate the Japan-Australia economic partnership agreement as well.
In the Japan-Australia EPA, Japan agreed to reduce tariffs on Australian beef, but the tariffs will be gradually lowered – to 23.5 percent in 15 years for refrigerated beef – and will be coupled with a low-tariff quota, which means the tariffs will be recovered to the original level for imports that exceeds the quota.
If the tariffs on American beef are cut below 10 percent, it would be virtually the same as abolishing them, according to the LDP lawmaker.
Generally speaking, the texture of U.S. beef is said to be of higher quality than Australian beef and competes with domestically-produced dairy steers and crossbred F1 cattle. If the tariffs on American beef are to be largely reduced in the TPP negotiations, its influence on prices and demand for domestically-produced beef would be far bigger than the Japan-Australia EPA.
(April 11, 2014)