By RACHEL LANE

D.C. Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. farmers received some good news on the trade front last week from Japan and the White House.

Last week, following a trade visit to Japan, the USDA announced the country will remove restrictions on imports of U.S. beef immediately. Japan is the largest importer of U.S. beef products, but placed restrictions on imports in 2003 after bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or “mad cow disease,” was detected in the United States.

In 2005, Japan restored access to its markets for muscle cuts and offal items from U.S. cattle 20 months or age or younger. In 2015, it extended access to include all beef products from cattle under 30 months of age.

“Tariff rates grab all the headlines, but non-tariff barriers are often just as important, if not more so, when it comes to determining market access. Hopefully this will help spotlight this important point and lead to more trade victories in the near future,” said National Cattlemen’s Beef Assoc. President Jennifer Houston.

She said USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue and the Trump administration deserve credit for knocking down the non-tariff barrier in Japan. “This underscores the safety of the U.S. beef herd, and it will hopefully send a signal to other Asian nations that non-science-based trade barriers like this one should be eliminated in their countries as well.”

Japan is the largest U.S. export market for beef products. According to the USDA, the increased access could boost annual imports to Japan by $200 million – welcome news, as Japan has new trading partners.

Perdue met with Japanese officials several times in the week before the announcement. During a press call from South Korea after his visit to Japan last week, he said, “We sent a very clear signal that our producers are becoming disadvantaged based on (Japan’s) agreement with 10 other nations and the EU (European Union) 28 nations’ agreements … that put our producers at a disadvantage.”

He refers to agreements with the EU and the revised Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Both agreements went into effect earlier this year and decreased tariffs for participating countries.

The U.S. does not have an agreement with Japan yet. It was announced in April that talks would begin and that there was a possibility of finalizing an agricultural agreement quickly, before working on more complicated areas of trade that could take years to agree upon.

Perdue said the United States is one of Japan’s best customers internationally, with a trade deficit of $70 billion. The Japanese were threatened with tariffs by the White House if they did not start negotiating.

Dr. Dermot Hayes, an economist at Iowa State University, said pork producers could see exports to Japan grow $500 million over the next 15 years if the U.S. quickly gains access to the Japanese market on par with international competitors. Alternatively, if an agreement is not quickly reached, U.S. pork shipments to Japan will drop from $1.6 billion in 2018 to $349 million.

Closer to home, Canada and Mexico will be feeling some relief as the Trump administration announced plans to lift the Section 232 tariffs on their steel and aluminum exports. Both countries retaliated when they were imposed last year, by placing tariffs on a variety of U.S. products, including many agricultural exports.

Many experts believed the administration would lift the tariffs in November 2018 when the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was to be signed. The agreement is not in place yet, though, as all three countries need to pass legislation into law to ratify it.

An agreement was announced May 17 to remove the tariffs on Canada and Mexico steel and aluminum and for those countries to lift the retaliatory tariffs. The agreement provides for monitoring to prevent surges in imports of steel and aluminum.

“If surges in imports of specific steel and aluminum products occur, the United States may re-impose Section 232 tariffs on those products,” reads the announcement from the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office.

The tariffs were expected to be lifted at the beginning of this week. Dennis Slater, president of the Assoc. of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), said the announcement was made after concerns were voiced by such manufacturers.

“We also continue to urge the President to completely remove all steel and aluminum tariffs on America’s other trading partners around the world, and end all the protectionist tariffs hurting U.S. farmers, American families, and our national economy,” Slater said.

“We need our elected officials to make it easier, not more difficult, for American businesses, manufacturers, and farmers to be competitive in a 21st century global marketplace.”

Mexico put a 20 percent tariff on U.S. pork, costing producers $12 per animal, or about $1.5 billion on an annual industry-wide basis, said David Herring, a pork producer from Lillington, N.C., and president of the National Pork Producers Council.

Last year, Canada and Mexico bought more than 40 percent of the pork exported from the United States.

“We are also hopeful that the end of this dispute allows more focus on the quick completion of a trade deal with Japan," Herring said. "U.S. pork is losing market in its largest-value market to international competitors that have recently implemented new trade agreements with Japan."

Mexico is also the biggest export market for U.S. dairy. “Exports play a key role in the future milk price. Under today’s depressed milk prices and higher production costs, our farmers are feeling the strain,” said Brody Stapel, president of Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative, one of the largest dairy co-ops in the country, and a producer from eastern Wisconsin.

He is thankful the administration lifted the tariffs and hopeful the USMCA legislation will pass soon.

“While removing the tariffs on Canada and Mexico should have happened sooner, I am glad to see today’s news. Hopefully America’s farmers and ranchers will now be able to begin restoring two of the markets they had lost due to this trade war,” said Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), chair of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture.

“Unfortunately, the war is still not over. For farmers and ranchers in California and around the country, full access to other countries, including China, must also be restored so that we can get back on offense and open new markets around the world.”