Market Access Under a Dynamic Safeguard Mechanism: Evidence From the United States–Japan Trade Agreement

Anabeth Livingston, K. Aleks Schaefer and Trey Malone

Agricultural Economics, 2025, vol. 56, issue 6, 895-904

Abstract: Access to the Japanese beef market has historically been highly restricted via import quotas and prohibitive tariffs. On January 1, 2020, the United States and Japan implemented the United States–Japan Trade Agreement (USJTA), which aimed to enhance market access by reducing tariffs on a variety of commodities, including beef and beef products. Less than 18 months after USJTA implementation, Japan re‐instituted high tariffs on U.S. beef after agreement safeguard levels were surpassed. In June 2022, USJTA safeguards were revised to rely on a three‐trigger mechanism. We nest a multitreatment‐period difference‐in‐difference design inside an econometric gravity model to investigate the impacts of these institutional regime changes on United States–Japan beef trade. We find that the USJTA substantially expanded access to the Japanese market for U.S. beef—even in light of the safeguard tariffs. In aggregate, the agreement generates an additional $210 million in annual exports for the U.S. beef industry. Even amidst changing attitudes towards the economic appeal of global market integration, incremental efforts to that end can have meaningful impacts for affected stakeholders.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.70039

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:agecon:v:56:y:2025:i:6:p:895-904

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0169-5150

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Economics is currently edited by W.A. Masters and G.E. Shively

More articles in Agricultural Economics from International Association of Agricultural Economists Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().