July 2, 2004

Japan Likely To Impose Safeguard Tariffs On Pork Imports

Japan was expected to impose emergency safeguard tariffs on pork imports in August.

The safeguard measures would kick in automatically as the volume of pork imports in April-June quarter is estimated to have exceeded the average import volume in the past three years, a rule for safeguard measures, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper said.

For pork, safeguard measures are imposed once the quarterly volume of imports exceeds 257,004 tons.

Japan's pork imports came to a total of 223,246 tons only in April and May, up 23.9 percent from a year ago, the Nihon Keizai said.

Although June data was still not available, aggregate volume in the April-June quarter most likely surpassed the trigger level.

The emergency measures would stay in place until March 2005. This would be the fourth straight year that such measures are implemented.

The volume of pork imports rose as Japan banned US beef imports because of the mad cow scares.

The tariff hikes would vary depending on the type of pork, the Nihon Keizai said.