Japan Updates Tariff Rate Quotas for Certain Dairy Products

Japan’s Ministry of Finance announced tariff rate quotas for certain dairy imports for the Japanese fiscal year that runs from April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2020, according to an April 10 notice from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service. The TRQs cover “natural cheese for processing, skimmed milk powder, evaporated milk, butter and butteroil, and certain whey products, ” the notice said. Among several changes are those affecting imports of natural cheese used in processed cheese: Each Japanese importer is permitted to import natural cheese tariff-free up to 2.5 times “the volume of domestic cheese it uses for the production of processed cheese,” the notice said.