Japan sets beef tariff rate for FY 2010

The Upper House in Japan passed legislation in March to extend the applicable period for temporary tariff rates on a number of items, including beef.

 

The current beef tariff of 38.5% will remain unchanged during the Japanese fiscal year (JFY 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2011), provided the ''safeguard'' mechanism is not triggered by a sudden surge in beef imports.

 

The safeguard allows the Japanese government to increase the tariff to the bound rate of 50%, when the cumulative quarterly increase in imports exceeds the import levels for the same period in the previous year by 17% or more.

 

The calculation method for the safeguard has been altered for JFY 2010 under the extended Temporary Tariff Measures Law. The amendment is in recognition of the extraordinary circumstance generated by the ban on imports from the US in December 2003 (which resulted in a subsequent decrease in beef imports) and the subsequent gradual market recovery. The safeguard for JFY 2010 will be based on an average of actual imports in JFY 2002 and 2003, except the frozen beef trigger level for the first quarter (based on JFY 2009).

 

This alteration will generally allow slightly larger import volumes without triggering the tariff increase.