China’s restaurants replace American beef with Australian beef amid trade war: reports
Australian beef producers stand to benefit from a major move by restaurants in China amid the trade war with the US.
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Restaurants in China are reportedly switching out American beef for Australian beef due to Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The US President triggered a trade war with Beijing by slapping meaty tariffs on Chinese goods.
An ensuing tit-for-tat escalation peaked with the US imposing 145 per cent levies on Chinese products and China imposing 125 per cent duties on American products.
Both sides have since backed down, with Washington agreeing to 30 per cent imposts on goods from China and Beijing agreeing to 10 per cent on US imports.
But the tariffs have still hiked American beef supply costs for restaurants in the Chinese capital, prompting them to look to tariff-free Australian beef.
Chinese state media reported on Tuesday that an American-themed restaurant in Beijing had made the switch because of “cost pressures and declining supply stability of US imports”.
The Global Times reported it spoke with a staff member at a “branch of a restaurant famous for its American-style barbecue in Beijing”.
The staff member said the restaurant “stopped serving imported beef from the US starting from about one month ago due to the impact of tariffs”, the Chinese government mouthpiece reported.
The Global Times did not name the chain, but US business news channel CNBC has also reported that restaurants in Beijing are changing to Australian beef, including one eatery’s “The Great American” burger.
A beef supplier told the network that American “beef is fattier and tastier” but the “high price is just too much to bear”.
Australian beef is exported to China without any duties under the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement.
The Albanese government last year also cleared trade barriers for $20bn in Australian goods headed for Chinese ports, including lobsters.
Chinese supermarket shelves say it all
Australian beef has been replacing US products on the shelves in Chinese supermarkets as the two economic superpowers continue their trade war.
Beijing and Washington in recent days accused each other of violating a truce in the tit-for-tat tariff regime sparked by Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement in April.
Now a video posted to X has shown how trade tensions have changed things on the ground in China, where American beef stocks have virtually disappeared.
In the video, a local speaking in English shows a shelf stocked full of Australian beef where US products used to be found.
“I guess I’m having Australian beef for dinner tonight,” she said. “Instead of American beef.
“And honestly because of the food quality, I probably trust Australian beef better.
“And this box of beef right here is 50 RMB which is about $7 USD (AU$10.82).
“So to answer the question, China ain’t hurting. And if anything I think we’re probably doing even better because now that we have better beef that tastes better and at a better price.
“So thank you Trump for that.”
Data from Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) has tracked a significant increase in grain-fed beef exports into China so far this year.
There were 21,885 tonnes shipped in February and March — up nearly 40 per cent on the same period last year – and in April China bought a third of the record 37,000 tonnes exported in a single month.
MLA’s global supply analyst Tim Jackson has said Australia’s export volumes were high because of record supply levels.
He was more hesitant, however, to attribute the huge intake from China to the ongoing trade war.
“It’s difficult to say at the moment, these are fairly early figures and we’d need to wait for more information to come out and get a better understanding of that trade dynamic,” he told the ABC.
But there have been reports that the US$1.6 billion trade (AU$2.5 billion) of American beef to China has been effectively halted by the reciprocal tariffs, which until last month sat at 145 per cent and 125 per cent respectively.
The US Meat Federation said in April that “the majority of US beef production is now ineligible for China” due to trade restrictions.
“This impasse definitely hit our March beef shipments harder and the severe impact will continue until China lives up to its commitments under the Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement.”
At the time, global meat analyst Brett Stuart told the ABC that Australia was “now the lone supplier of high-quality white fat marbled beef into China”.
“(US beef) sales to China have fallen to zero … and not only is the market now closed based on the March 16 production date, but the combined retaliation tariffs by China now take the tariff on US beef to 116 per cent, a level that will quickly halt trade.”
The US remains a huge market for Australian beef and imported more of the product (37,213 tonnes) than China (21,572 tonnes) in the month of April.
A 90-day trade war truce was struck between the US and China on May 12, with tariffs reduced to 30 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.
However, both nations have recently accused the other of undermining the agreement.
US President Mr Trump on Friday claimed Beijing had “totally violated its agreement with us”, before China hit back this week, saying Washington had “seriously undermined” the deal.
Trump, Xi will ‘likely’ talk this week
Mr Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will likely hold a long-awaited call later this week, the White House said on Monday, as trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies escalate.
Trump reignited strains with China last week when he accused the world’s second-largest economy of violating a deal that had led both countries to reduce massive tit-for-tat tariffs temporarily.
“The two leaders will likely talk this week,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters outside the West Wing when asked whether Mr Trump and Mr Xi would speak.
Mr Trump and Xi have yet to have any confirmed contact more than five months since the Republican returned to power, despite frequent claims by the US president that a call is imminent.
Trump even said in a Time Magazine interview in April that Xi had called him - but Beijing insisted that there had been no call recently.
Stock markets around the world mostly declined on Monday as tensions between the US and China resurfaced.
Originally published as China’s restaurants replace American beef with Australian beef amid trade war: reports
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