Earlier this week, Canada's International Trade Minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, confirmed an agreement that Canada will sign the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, also know as TPP-11, in early March.
The Canadian Cattlemen's Association's (CCA) Director of Government and International Relations John Masswohl says Japan is the main focus of TPP-11 for the cattle industry.
"There's 11 countries, including Canada, in the deal. With some of them, like Mexico, Peru, Chile, we already have Free Trade Agreements, so it wasn't about getting new access to some of those countries. Others like Australia, New Zealand, those are major beef producing countries we're probably not going to export to. So largely for us, Japan was the main issue."
Masswohl says after the agreement is signed, Canadian beef exported to Japan will see a significant decrease in tariff.
"Japan is one of our top export markets currently. We've done a little over $100 million per year the last two years, and that's with a 38.5 tariff."
He says, right now Canada is subject to a 50 per cent tariff on frozen beef exported to Japan, and a 38.5 per cent tariff on fresh beef.
In a release, the CCA says they anticipate to see an increase of over $200 million of Canadian beef exports to Japan.
They say, Canada will enjoy a competitive advantage over American beef as the United States will not be a part of the agreement and will remain at a much higher tariff.
Source : Steinbachonline