Australian cheese looks likely to fail Japan’s knife test

THE nation’s $2.3 billion dairy export industry is concerned that negotiations towards a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership may not overcome Japan’s notorious Knife Test, which bars many of our cheeses.
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And it fears the TPP could leave it worse off and that its ­rivals — especially from the US — could gain more ground for their dairy exports, while Australia’s remain mostly locked out.
Australian Dairy Industry Council chairman Noel Campbell told The Weekend Australian yesterday that Japan had nevertheless been the biggest global buyer of Australian dairy products, spending $500 million a year. But last year Greater China — including Hong Kong — surged past it.
And while the bilateral free-trade agreement with Japan, which came into force in January, provided some reductions in dairy tariffs and quotas, “there were few advances for us”, Mr Campbell said.
“The China agreement” — set for ratification in the second half of this year — “is what I would call a true FTA for dairy, where all tariffs, and the few quotas, are removed over time”.
The TPP, said Mr Campbell, had become “a defensive matter for us”, making sure the industry didn’t end up worse off in key markets.
Canada — like Japan, a late TPP entrant — “has a highly enclosed dairy industry” with quotas and few imports. “If they want to be part of the partnership, they should adhere to its principles,” Mr Campbell said.
Australia’s dairy exports to Japan are chiefly cheese, including fresh mozzarella blended there with cheese from Japan’s declining dairy industry, mainly for the pizza market.
Beyond that, the industry faces the immense obstacles of the Knife Test and the Stand-Up Test. The first requires cheese seeking to be imported by Japan, to be cut with a sharp knife.
If any cheese sticks to the blade, it is ruled not to be cheese, and cannot gain entry. This rules out almost all soft cheeses.
The Stand-Up Test provides a further, almost insurmountable, barrier to such cheeses. A sample is left at room temperature for 24 hours. If it changes shape in any way — as, for instance, ripe brie will do — then again it is barred.
Despite Japan’s dairy market remaining highly protected, Mr Campbell said “we have won the greatest market share there, over time, and we don’t want it detrimentally affected by the TPP”.
Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb earlier told The Weekend Australian: “There is no doubt that the end is within reach” — possibly after the 12 trade ministers meet in Hawaii in May. “Nothing’s concluded until everything is concluded and the final part of any trade negotiation is always the most difficult.”
 
Source: The Australian
 

Mirá También

Así lo expresó Domingo Possetto, secretario de la seccional Rafaela, quien además, afirmó que a los productores «habitualmente los ignoran los gobiernos». Además, reconoció la labor de los empresarios de las firmas locales y aseguró que están «esperanzados» con la negociación entre SanCor y Adecoagro.

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