July 1, 2005

Japan to limit beef imports in August

The Japanese government will be imposing emergency import restrictions on beef that would protect domestic farmers this August due to swelling import volumes.

Beef imports in the April-June quarter increased from a year earlier by more than 17 percent, the requirement for the restrictions to go into effect.

The rise this year is possibly a reaction to the plunge in imports last year when Japan in December 2003 banned the import of US beef after the discovery of the first case of mad cow disease there. The safeguards would raise the tariff on imported beef from 38.5 percent now, to 50 percent through March 2006.

This marks the first time in two years such tariffs were needed for chilled beef and the first in nine years for frozen beef.