Apples and Beef: and In-Depth Look at Us Exports to Japan

Apples and Beef: and in-depth look at U.S. exports to Japan

Krista Cortellini

Ahmad Elarbi

Jacqueline Garris

Diana Hamel

John Michaels

INTRODUCTION

Agriculture is one of the most disputed issues in the global economy, dealing with everything ranging from protectionism to health standards. In the current round of the WTO, the Doha round, agriculture is one of the most prominent features on the development agenda. Although much of the agenda deals with the developing world, there are issues disputed between developed countries as well. The U.S. and Japan have had a strong, but relatively new, trading partnership, including agricultural products. There have been a number of issues surrounding agriculture, some minor, and some requiring WTO involvement. Two of the most heavily disputed products are U.S. products are U.S. apples and U.S. beef exports to Japan. Aside from the market issues, there are numerous non-market barriers in Japan that have created a very complicated and heated situation for U.S. exporters. The following paper will analyze the non-market barriers and their resolutions for U.S. exporters of apples and beef into the Japanese market. The paper is divided into two sections - it first discusses apples and then beef. Each section includes an introduction to the problems specific to the product, some background information on the issue, a description of the non-market barriers and reasons for implementing them, the response to the non-market barriers, the involvement of the WTO or other organizations, and finally, the resolution of the problem and the current situation. This paper illustrates how and why the Japanese government restricted U.S. apple and beef imports, and also how the U.S. exporters worked with the government as well as the WTO and other organizations to achieve more exporting privileges.

I. APPLES

Introduction

For many years the United States has been trying to export apples to the high-income Japanese market but has faced many issues in doing so. The U.S. is the second largest exporter in the world, following China and would like to expand even further (Resolution of the U.S.-Japan Apple Dispute: New Opportunities for Trade). Unfortunately, some countries, like Japan have strict barriers to entry for the apple producers due primarily to the insects or apple worm and apple maggot that may be transferred with the fruit. Some other problems include, but are not limited to, pesticide and fumigation problems. Japan is the number one US agricultural export market, yet they refuse to acknowledge pest-free regions in the US and additional varieties of horticultural products require extensive and redundant testing (Resolution of the U.S.-Japan Apple Dispute: New Opportunities for Trade).

With