SA wine and seafood industry still reeling from China trade row are ‘closely monitoring’ US moves amid Donald Trump tariff blitz

SA farmers, winemakers and fishers are worried the US has more tariffs in store - when they are still recovering from a crippling trade skirmish with China.

SA farmers, winemakers and fishers are warily watching the United States impose a plethora of new global tariffs as key industries continue clawing their way back from crippling Chinese tolls slapped on markets a few years ago.

Beef and sheep producers, the state’s biggest exporters to the United States, are closely monitoring developments in Washington to ensure their own industry is not targeted.

Grain Producers SA chief executive officer Caroline Rhodes. Picture: Caroline Rhodes

US President Donald Trump speaks at the Business Roundtable quarterly meeting in Washington, DC on March 11, 2025. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

Primary Producers SA chief executive officer Caroline Rhodes said industry leaders had been working with trade officials “to ensure our concerns are heard by the Trump administration”.

Latest data showed SA sent $302.5m worth of beef meat to the United States in the year to November 2024, closely followed by $301m in sheep meat, and Ms Rhodes said industry leaders would battle any new trade protectionist policies.

“As the state’s largest export sector, our primary producers depend on access to key markets like the US,” Ms Rhodes said.

“The recent impact of tariffs and lost market access to China - felt deeply by industries such as wine and barley - has underscored the critical need to diversify markets in an increasingly unpredictable global trading environment.”

Wine and seafood industries were devastated by China whacking producers with huge tariffs overnight in 2020 after taking umbrage to commentary from the Morrison Government around the origins of Covid.

The bottom fell out of the wine market worth nearly $1bn to the state and Australian Grape and Wine chief executive officer Lee McLean said the US market was being closely watched as it was “worth $325m to Australia last calendar year”.

Mr McLean hoped the wine industry’s investment in the United States and its economic support to its wine distribution and retail industry would keep Australia safe from wine tariffs.

The federal government has pinned hopes on Australia avoiding tariffs as it nationally imports more US goods than it exports to the US, but in SA, businesses have shifted the import-export dial to a trade surplus.

SA exported $2.13bn of goods to the United States in the past year to November while importing $752.8m worth at the same time.

However, Mr McLean said tariffs imposed on Australia’s fifth largest export market for wine in Canada could also provide some opportunities, after that country retaliated by removing US alcohol from many retail shelves.

“But I don’t think anyone wins out of a trade war,” he added.

SA’s rock lobster industry saw its export market disappear overnight when China announced tariffs, and SA’s Northern Zone Rock Lobster Fishery Executive Officer Kyri Toumazos said trade had only just resumed on December 28, four years later.

While the state only exports a small amount of lobster to the US, he feared any global trade disturbance with “tariffs being put on left, right and centre” created economic uncertainty for all markets around the world.

“As an operating environment in the United States it is uncertain,” he said.

Trade and Investment Minister Joe Szakacs said the US was a valued export destination and he was in “constant contact with federal government ministers, as well as South Australia’s trade and investment experts, based in the USA, and fully support their efforts to get local products free access to international markets”.

Originally published as SA wine and seafood industry still reeling from China trade row are ‘closely monitoring’ US moves amid Donald Trump tariff blitz