Government ‘won’t give up’ on US tariff reprieve after Trump celebrates end of beef ban

Trade Minister Don Farrell has insisted the federal government could convince Donald Trump to remove all tariffs on Australian goods, as the US president said he would use the decision to allow North American beef into the country to pressure other countries to capitulate in trade talks.

The Trump administration hailed the deal, announced on Thursday, as a win even as analysts said the step was unlikely to significantly boost US shipments because beef prices are much lower in Australia.

US President Donald Trump has declared he will use Australia’s decision to allow in North American beef to pressure other countries.Credit: Bloomberg

“The other Countries that refuse our magnificent Beef are ON NOTICE,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Thursday. “All of our Nation’s Ranchers, who are some of the hardest working and most wonderful people, are smiling today, which means I am smiling too. Let’s keep the Hot Streak going. IT’S THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA!”

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has attempted to renegotiate trade deals with multiple countries that he asserts have taken advantage of the United States over the years. Many economists have disputed Trump’s characterisation.

Farrell said the beef decision was science-based and unconnected to trade negotiations. “We haven’t done this in order to entice the Americans into a trade agreement,” he said in an appearance at the Lowy Institute think tank on Friday.

“We think they should do that anyway. We think the Americans should honour the terms of our free trade agreement.”

Asked if it was fanciful to expect Australia could be given an exemption to Trump’s baseline 10 per cent tariff when no other country has achieved this, Farrell said: “I think eventually the Americans will come to the realisation that tariffs are an act of self harm that are actually pushing up inflation, pushing up unemployment and reduced their retirement benefits and economic growth. So I don’t think we should give up on the ambition to get those tariffs removed.”

Farrell said that because of the shift away from free trade under Trump “what we risk seeing is a shift from a system based on shared prosperity and interdependence to one based solely on power and size”.

“If our trading partners’ growth slows, without doubt we will suffer,” he said.

“The costs to consumers and businesses of a global economic slowdown will be felt for generations, and the shock waves of inflation will worsen.”

“We haven’t done this in order to entice the Americans into a trade agreement”: Trade Minister Don Farrell.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said on Thursday that a “rigorous science and risk-based assessment” had concluded that US measures to monitor and control the movement of cattle meant biosecurity risks were being effectively managed.

She said the decision had been made by her department after a decade-long review process and denied it was connected to trade talks with the US, which has imposed a 10 per cent tariff on Australian imports.

Meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the US has been allowed into Australia since 2019. But few suppliers were able to prove their animals had only been in the US, because cattle frequently moved between the US, Canada and Mexico without being adequately tracked.

Under the new rules, cattle born in all three countries and legally slaughtered in the US will be allowed into Australia. Australian farming groups have raised concerns about cows from Central American countries such as Guatemala, which have poor biosecurity controls, entering the US supply chain illicitly and their meat on sold to Australia.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement welcoming the move that Australia had imposed “unjustified barriers” on US beef that were now being lifted.

“American farmers and ranchers produce the safest, healthiest beef in the world. It’s absurd that non-scientific trade barriers prevented our beef from being sold to consumers in Australia for the last 20 years,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in the same statement.

The statement also said the move from Australia was a “direct result” of trade pressure from the president.

Nationals leader David Littleproud said that Trump was “heralding how he walked all over” the prime minsiter, setting a dangerous precedent for future negotiations.

“Albanese has failed in the diplomacy of one of our key allies and one of our key trading partners. He’s prepared, because of that failure, to trade away the security and the biosecurity of our nation,” Littleproud said.

“That’s dangerous when you’re talking about human health, about things like tuberculosis and mad cow disease. It shows that this was cut in Washington, and the Department of Agriculture has been told to catch up.”

Helen Scott-Orr, a former inspector-general of biosecurity and NSW chief veterinary officer, said she did not believe there was “great risk” to Australian biosecurity, given the low expected desire for American beef and the strength of biosecurity protocols.

“It may be convenient that it has happened at this time, but it’s not necessarily going to increase our risk if the import risk analysis has been done properly,” Scott-Orr said.

“The government would not, in my experience, override a recommendation of the Department of Agriculture that these requirements be maintained.”

The federal government has previously estimated that a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, for example, could cost the economy $80 billion.

The US has been improving its ability to monitor animals’ movements to limit the spread of avian influenza and the New World screwworm, a parasite that eats cattle alive.

That has been found in Mexico and Guatemala, which forced the US to suspend imports last year.

Australia has long had some of the toughest biosecurity measures in the world to protect its reputation for disease-free high, high-quality agricultural products.

The Nationals declared on Thursday that they would seek an independent scientific review of the government’s decision to remove the de facto US beef ban. Several farming groups, including the National Farmers Federation, supported that move.

With Reuters

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