A leader in the U.S. beef industry said Japan?s recent decision to increase its tariff on imported frozen beef is the result of an old safeguard mechanism and the absence a free trade agreement.
Philip Seng is the President and CEO of the U.S. Meat Export Federation. Seng said Japan?s ?safeguard? mechanism was initially meant to protect Japanese farmers, if there would happen to be a surge in imports.
?As you go back in the late 80s and early 90s, there were a lot of trade negotiations going on with the Beef Liberalization Agreement, and Japan wanted to make sure that Japanese farmers were insulated from too strong of increases of imports coming in,? Seng said. ?As a consequence or reason to get liberalization, Japan said they would need to have these safeguards. The United States, at the time, agreed to those safeguards. Of course, we have not engaged Japan in any major trade negotiations, except Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). But, we pulled out of TPP, so we?re still left with the 1995 World Trade Organization (WTO) situation.?
With the ?safeguard? mechanism, if imports exceed by 17 percent compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year, the safeguard is triggered. Within the first Japanese quarter, April 1 through June 30, the United States exceeded 17 percent by 113 metric tons. Seng said not having a trade agreement with Japan put the United States at a real disadvantage.
?The safeguard situation that we?re under is a quarterly situation The TPP safeguard, for example, is a yearly safeguard. If that would be in effect, we would not have this triggered because it is much more liberal, more generous, ad we would never have qualified for this,? Seng said.
For immediate relief to the U.S. beef industry, Seng encourages elected officials to reconsider becoming a member of Trans-Pacific Partnership.
