The United States and Japan outlined initial details of a trade deal on Wednesday as the countries work on details of a broader agreement in the coming months.
Under the agreement, frozen U.S. poultry will be among the agricultural products that will benefit from staged tariff elimination.
“Under the U.S.- Japan Trade Agreement, frozen chicken products will receive favorable tariff reductions enabling our products to compete more effectively with those countries in the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” said National Chicken Council President Mike Brown.
“While final details regarding agriculture still need to be worked out, today’s signing is welcome news and we would like to thank President Trump, Secretary Perdue and Secretary Lighthizer for their work negotiating trade deals that stand to benefit U.S. chicken.”
According to USDA, U.S. chicken exports to Japan in 2018 were 19,265 metric tons valued at $32.5 million. Fully removing tariffs would stand to benefit the U.S. industry and lead to increased exports of U.S. chicken products.
The agreement does not have to be approved by the U.S. Congress, but it does have to be approved by the Japanese Diet. The Diet convenes its next session, known as an extraordinary session, on October 4, 2019. The extraordinary session is set to end on December 10, 2019.
