Trade Minister Don Farrell says he was wrong to claim that US President Donald Trump raised Australian restrictions on beef imports from North America in phone conversations with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ahead of the decision to scrap the de facto ban.
The opposition is calling for both a Senate inquiry and an independent scientific review of the decision to end the restrictions, which they have suggested was made to help secure a trade deal with the Trump administration.
US President Donald Trump has claimed credit for Australia’s decision to end restrictions on beef imports from North America.Credit: AP
Asked about diplomatic discussions leading up to last week’s announcement, Farrell said on Sunday that: “Of course, the president of the United States has raised it with the prime minister”.
Pressed on when Trump and Albanese had discussed the issue, Farrell told Sky News: “I couldn’t tell you off the top of my head which of the discussions, but I’m aware that this issue was raised by the president of the United States, but that will not change the way in which we conduct and examine our biosecurity issues.”
Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash leapt upon Farrell’s “extraordinary” comments, saying they had raised more questions about whether the process to ease restrictions on beef imports was purely science-based.
Albanese later told the ABC’s Insiders that he had not discussed the issue with Trump in any of their three phone conversations, refuting Farrell’s initial claim.
“I made a mistake,” Farrell told this masthead, adding that he had confused Trump’s remarks about Australian beef in the White House rose garden with a conversation between the two leaders.
Asked whether Trump had raised the issue with him, Albanese said: “No. Donald Trump, though, did raise it at the so-called Liberation Day, of course – he raised it publicly, so his views were well-known.”
Albanese insisted that “this wasn’t a political decision”, saying it was “absolutely” a coincidence that the Department of Agriculture decided to lift the restrictions after loud complaints from Trump.
“There has been an independent review, it took 10 years,” Albanese said, rejecting the opposition’s calls for an investigation into the move. “The decision has been made, and it was made independently at arm’s length of any political decision.”
Trade Minister Don Farrell said he was wrong to say US President Donald Trump raised the issue of beef imports in his conversations with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Cash said: “It is even more imperative now that we need to ensure that the Australian Labor Party under Mr Albanese have not traded away our strict biosecurity standards, which all Australians understand need to be in place.”
Australia has allowed US beef into the country since 2019, but blocked meat from cattle that were born in Mexico and Canada before being slaughtered in America. This effectively meant that all beef from the continent was blocked, because US supply chains are highly integrated. No US beef has been imported since 2019.
The Trump administration has taken credit for the government’s move to lift the restrictions, hailing it as a major trade victory that would “make agriculture great again”.
“This is yet another example of the kind of market access the president negotiates to bring America into a new golden age of prosperity, with American agriculture leading the way,” US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said last week.
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