FAS updates agricultural safeguard triggers

The levels are required to be released annually and include beef, dairy products and various condiments.    The Agriculture Department Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) on Tuesday announced updated quantity-based trigger levels for products that may be subject to additional import duties under the safeguard provisions of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture.
   Updated quantity trigger levels are set at 125 percent of the most recent three-year average level of imports for each commodity.
   The WTO Agreement on Agriculture allows countries to charge additional duties if the price of an individual shipment of imported products falls below the average price for similar goods imported from 1986 to 1988 by a specified percentage.
   The agreement also allows member countries to charge more duties when the volume of imports of that product exceeds the sum of (1) a base trigger level multiplied by the average of the last three years of available import data and (2) the change in yearly composition in the most recent year for which data are available — provided that the final trigger level is not less than 105 percent of the three-year import average.
   The base trigger level is set at 105 percent, 110 percent or 125 percent of the three-year import average, depending on the percentage of domestic consumption represented by imports, FAS said.
   The quantity-trigger levels must be updated annually based upon import levels during the most recent three years.
   Products included on the trigger list include beef, mutton, cream, various milk products, butter, chocolate crumb, ice cream, various cheeses, peanut butter, raw cane sugar, blended syrups, mixes and doughs, mixed condiments and seasonings, and various cottons.