Japan has raised tariffs on frozen beef imports from the United States and some other countries in order to protect domestic producers against an increase in imports.
Tariffs on frozen beef increased to 50 percent from 38.5 percent between Aug. 1 and the end of March 2018 as a ‘safeguard’ mechanism for domestic farmers is to be triggered for the first time in 14 years.
The move came as U.S. President Donald Trump tried to expand exports of U.S. products to Japan.
The increase is automatically triggered if quarterly imports from all nations, and from countries that do not have economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with Japan both rise more than 17 percent in volume from a year earlier.