Australia tells Japan, 'No renegotiation of TPP beef rules'

Tokyo worries that flood of imports will harm its producers once it has a deal with the U.S.

Australia enjoys a large quota of beef exports to Japan before safeguard tariffs kick in, and it wants to preserve that even after Washington inks a trade deal with Tokyo. © Reuters

HISAO KODACHI, Nikkei staff writer

August 27, 2019 07:27 JST

TOKYO -- Australia has secured its place as the top beef exporter to Japan, but with Tokyo hashing out a bilateral trade deal with the U.S., another beef powerhouse, Canberra is refusing to renegotiate the terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership for fear that its cattlemen could lose out.

"Australia is not seeking to renegotiate the mechanisms within the [Trans-Pacific Partnership] around beef or any other products," Bridget McKenzie, Australia's agriculture minister, told Nikkei Monday in Tokyo.