Australia considers relaxing ban on US beef in tariff negotiations
A change to the long-standing ban on US beef could be used as a sweetner in tariff talks with Donald Trump’s administration this month.
American beef could be allowed into Australia for the first time since the early 2000s as Anthony Albanese prepares for tariff talks with Donald Trump.
Biosecurity laws which have prevented US beef from being imported since 2003 due to concerns over mad cow disease could be weakened as part of negotiations, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The federal government is working to have a 50 per cent tariff on Australian steel and aluminium, and 10 per cent on all other goods, to be removed.
Trade Minister Don Farell told the ABC this week he had asked his US counterpart for the “removal of all tariffs on Australian products”.
“The trade relationship between Australia and the United States is overwhelmingly in the United States’ interests.”
Prime Minister, Mr Albanese and US President Mr Trump are expected to meet later this month at either the G7 in Canada or a privately in America.
Mr Trump and senior members of his administration have singled out Australia’s ban on US beef for special commentary surrounding the tariff regime.
“They won’t take any of our beef. They don’t want it because they don’t want it to affect their farmers and, you know, I don’t blame them, but we’re doing the same thing right now, starting at midnight tonight,” Mr Trump said in April.
Australian exporters sold $4.16 billion in beef to the US in 2024 alone.
China choosing Aussie beef
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.
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