The announcement comes ahead of a meeting between Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Theresa May.
Japan is ready to re-open its market for British beef and lamb after a 13-years ban imposed after the discovery of BSE (mad cow disease) epidemic in the UK, according to BBC.
Officials from UK government are hoping that Japan’s decision to drop the beef and lamb ban will be worth GBP 127 million (€140 million) to British farmers over five years. Exports of red meat products from the UK surpassed GBP 1.2 billion (€1.3 billion) in 2017, according to Revenue and Customs Statistics, but the total amount could drop sharply in case of no-deal Brexit.
“A no-deal Brexit means we would face overall tariff rates of around 11% on agricultural products. But some sectors would be much more severely affected. It’s a grim but inescapable fact that in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the effective tariffs on beef and sheep meat would be above 40% – in some cases well above that”, confirmed recently the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Michael Gove. Nevertheless, Japan is one of the world’s largest importer of beef and a trade deal could bring certain benefits for the British red meat sector.
“As the UK prepares to leave the EU, we raise our horizons towards the rest of the world. Our relationship with Japan is stronger than ever, and this visit will enhance co-operation in a wide range of areas”, declared Theresa May, before meeting her Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe.
In order to promote the development of food, drinks and food trade, Golden Commercial and related industry institutions will hold the Goldenfood Expo on May 29-31, 2019 at Shanghai National Convention and Exhibition Center. It will become the best platform for catering industry to purchase and obtain forward-looking information!