Japan has agreed to further reduce exports on United States potato products as of April 1, a news release from the National Potato Council (NPC) says. This comes only four months after the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement came into affect on Jan. 1.
The tariff on U.S. frozen fries will fall to 2.1 per cent, and the tariff on U.S. dehydrated potato flakes will drop to 10 per cent. Further reductions will happen each April until fully implemented. Tariffs will be fully removed on U.S. frozen potatoes in April 2021 and dehydrated potato flakes in April 2028. The tariff on U.S. fresh chipping potatoes, which was 4.3 per cent in 2019, was already eliminated.
These tariff reductions, now align U.S. potatoes with those for Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and other nations in the TPP-11 agreement, and with the EU in the EU-Japan Free Trade Agreement, the release says.
Japan is the U.S. potato industry’s top export market, with exports totalling US$365 million in 2019. It’s estimated that with the elimination of the current tariffs, the Japanese market could expand by an additional $150 million annually in the foreseeable future, the release says.
