Based on the Japan-U.S. Trade Agreement, the Japanese government has announced that a protocol containing new triggering conditions will go into effect from next month regarding the tariff hike measures called "safeguards" that the Japanese government will implement on American beef. Did.
"Safeguard" is a measure to urgently raise tariffs when the import volume of specific items such as beef and oranges exceeds a certain standard set for each year in order to limit the impact on domestic industries and producers. is.
Among these, in March last year, the Japanese government raised the tariff from 25.8% to 38.5% after the amount of imported beef from the United States exceeded the standard.
After that, as a result of negotiating new conditions for activation in accordance with the Japan-U.S. Trade Agreement, even if imports of beef from the United States exceed the criteria for activation, the total amount of imports from the United States and the countries that are members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will continue. The Japanese and US governments formally agreed that the tariffs would remain unchanged and the safeguards would not be invoked if the tariffs were within the standards.
The Japanese and U.S. governments announced on the 9th that the protocol containing the new activation conditions will come into effect from the 1st of next month, and even if imports from the United States increase, there is a possibility that it will not be activated depending on the amount of imports from TPP member countries. It came out.
The U.S. government said in a statement that it would "reduce the likelihood of tariff hikes such as those imposed last year and ensure that U.S. beef exporters can meet Japan's growing demand." did.