Under President
Trump’s leadership, the United States and Japan have reached agreement on early
achievements from negotiations in the areas of market access for certain
agriculture and industrial goods, as well as on digital trade. The United
States looks forward to further negotiations with Japan for a comprehensive
agreement that addresses remaining tariff and non-tariff barriers and achieves
fairer, more balanced trade.
1. LIBERALIZING
MARKET ACCESS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN
The United States and
Japan have reached an agreement in which Japan will eliminate or lower tariffs
for certain U.S. agricultural products. For other agricultural goods,
Japan will provide preferential U.S.-specific quotas.
Once this agreement is
implemented, over 90 percent of U.S. food and agricultural products imported
into Japan will either be duty free or receive preferential tariff access. For
example, under the agreement, Japan will:
Reduce tariffs on
products such as fresh and frozen beef and pork.
Provide a
country-specific quota for wheat and wheat products.
Reduce the mark-up on
imported U.S. wheat and barley.
Immediately eliminate
tariffs for almonds, walnuts, blueberries, cranberries, sweet corn, grain
sorghum, broccoli, and more.
Provide staged tariff
elimination for products such as cheeses, processed pork, poultry, beef offal,
ethanol, wine, frozen potatoes, oranges, fresh cherries, egg products, and
tomato paste.
This agreement
provides for the limited use of safeguards by Japan for surges in imports of
beef, pork, whey, oranges, and race horses, which will be phased out over time.
When the agreement is
implemented by Japan, American farmers and ranchers will have the same
advantage as CP-TPP countries selling into the Japanese market.
The United States will
provide tariff elimination or reduction on 42 tariff lines for agricultural
imports from Japan valued at $40 million in 2018, including products such as
certain perennial plants and cut flowers, persimmons, green tea, chewing gum,
and soy sauce.
The United States will
also reduce or eliminate tariffs on certain industrial goods from Japan such as
certain machine tools, fasteners, steam turbines, bicycles, bicycle parts, and
musical instruments.
2. CONCLUDING A HIGH-STANDARD
DIGITAL TRADE AGREEMENT
The United States and
Japan have reached a separate agreement on a high-standard and comprehensive
set of provisions addressing priority areas of digital trade. These areas
include:
Prohibitions on
imposing customs duties on digital products transmitted electronically such as
videos, music, e-books, software, and games.
Ensuring
non-discriminatory treatment of digital products, including coverage of tax
measures.
Ensuring barrier-free
cross-border data transfers in all sectors.
Prohibiting data
localization requirements, including for financial service suppliers.
Prohibiting arbitrary
access to computer source code and algorithms.
Ensuring firms’
flexibility to use innovative encryption technology in their products.
The digital trade
agreement with Japan meets the gold standard on digital trade rules set by the
USMCA and will expand trade in an area where the United States is a leader.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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