Meat producers from the US and Australia have urged the Japanese government not to invoke emergency curbs on imported beef, arguing that such restrictions would hurt not only the meat processing industry but also Japanese consumers.

Under World Trade Organization rules, Japan is entitled to raise its tariff on imported beef to 50 per cent if the nation's quarterly import volume exceeds by 17 per cent over the same period in the previous year. Japan's beef imports fell sharply after the September 2001 outbreak of mad cow disease.

As a result, the April-June import volume this year is expected to surpass the 17 per cent threshold over last year's volume. Many meat processors are worried that the government will invoke the measure in the next few months.

Chief executive at the Japan office of Meat and Livestock Australia , Samantha Jamieson, described the recent surge in beef imports to Japan as simply the result of beef consumption slowly returning to normal after the BSE outbreak. She warned that if the import curb is implemented, beef prices could rocket.

Japanese food industry experts have also challenged the logic of implementing a tariff. At a news conference in Tokyo, Japan Foodservice Association chairman Kiwamu Yokokawa expressed his group's opposition to any government move to invoke restrictive import measures, describing a tariff to protect domestic beef producers at a time when beef imports have not returned to normal as absurd.