Australia will probably cease a 16-year ban on imports of Japanese beef by the end of this year, now that Japan’s government has confirmed that the meat is safe for human consumption.
The government in Japan has set an objective to increase the value of exports of agricultural, forestry, and fishery products to 1 trillion yen ($8.68 billion) in 2019, which would be a 30% increase from 2013 levels. Getting import bans on Japanese beef lifted – is key to reaching this goal.
In 2001 Australia halted imports of Japanese beef due to a mad cow disease outbreak in Japan, and the Japanese government has been pressing Australia to resume imports ever since.
Australian government officials will probably inspect Japanese slaughterhouses in summer 2017 as a prelude to resuming the imports.