Japan faces world backlash over new beef tariffs

Australia has launched a concerted international campaign to try to defeat a punitive new tariff imposed by Japan on beef imports as they recover from a dramatic slump caused by mad cow disease.

The tariff is set to rise in August from 38.5 per cent to 50 per cent, which Australian cattle producers protest is unwarranted and could cost them hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Australian Cattle Council has also estimated the higher tariff will cost Japanese consumers 31 billion yen (257 million US dollars).

Australian beef exports to its biggest market Japan are struggling to recover from the mad cow disease scandal, which saw them plunge from 1.76 billion Australian dollars (1.03 billion US) in 2001 to 1.2 billion dollars last year.

Japan cut its beef imports by 42 per cent in the first half of last year in the aftermath of the mad cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), scare of September 2001.

Under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, Japan is allowed to increase tariffs as a safeguard once beef imports rise by 17 per cent in one quarter over the same quarter of the previous year.

But Australia and other beef exporting countries say the WTO provision will be inappropriately applied because the new tariff rate is being triggered by exports returning to normal from abnormally low levels.

Trade Minister Mark Vaile warned in a letter to his Japanese counterpart that application of the tariff would hurt beef-exporting nations and the recovery of Japan's beef market by forcing up prices.

A spokesman for Vaile said Canberra had launched an international lobbying effort to try to defeat the new measure.

"We've been pushing this pretty hard because it is just not what the rule was designed for," he told AFP.

He said Australia had recently received strong backing in its push from other beef exporting nations including the United States and Canada.

"I think we are starting to see a real recognition of the problem and a coordination of the response, but the difficulty as with all of these things is that it is up to the Japanese agriculture ministry to make the decision."

The Japan Food Service Association (JFSE), representing the catering sector which accounts for half Japan's beef consumption, has also weighed in, concerned it will push prices higher and damage recovery of the beef market.

The Australian Financial Review quoted a spokesman for the JFSE in Tokyo as saying imposition of the new tariff levels was "questionable and irrational."

Cattle Council president Keith Adams said the WTO provision were not designed to be punitive or to jeopardise countries that suffered a severe setback because of problems not of their making.

"We've pointed out to the Japanese government that this would be disruptive and destabilising to their consumers because it has the potential to curtail imports of beef into Japan," he told AFP.