Tariff pain to be felt by US consumers before Aussie producers says Darling Downs beef producer

Australia beef producers woke up to the news that Trump will tag their exports with a 10 per cent tariff. While unfortunate, the price hike’s effect will pale in comparison to the wild whims of Mother Nature.

Flooding rain from Dianne will have a greater effect on the price Aussie cattlemen get for their beef than anything US President Donald Trump can throw at us.

This was the message from Wyreema producer Jeff Brooks who laughed off Trump’s 10 per cent tariff, saying the price hike would hit the US President’s supporters harder than Australian exporters.

“Australia produces the best beef in the world, there will always be a market for it,” he said.

“There may be a disruption in the short terms, but someone will buy our beef.

“When Trump realises he has increased the price of beef for mainstream American consumers who are his base, that is when it will come unstuck for him,” he said.

“Most our beef that goes to the US is used in hamburgers, for the day-to-day living of Americans.”

Wyreema Grazier Jeff Brookes took over the operation along with his wife Ilka, of this 121 year old property in 2020. Establishing a grazing property with 250 head of Angus cattle on the 1000 acre just south of Toowoomba on the Darling Downs. Responding to the tariffs enforced by the US. 3rd April 2025, pic David Martinelli

The tariff bombshell came as reminants of ex-Tropical Cyclone Dianne moved across from Western Australia last week, bringing widespread flooding to areas in the Channel Country - twice the size of Victoria.

There have been reports of graziers losing thousands of sheep and cattle in station cut off by floodwater.

As floodwaters began to recede, Trump announced the slate of new tariffs early Thursday morning on what he dubbed “Liberation Day”.

They range from 49 per cent for Malaysia and Cambodia to 34 per cent for China. Australia got off relatively easy with just a 10 per cent “reciprocal tariff” that Trump said was in response to our GST.

TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump delivers remarks on reciprocal tariffs during an event in the Rose Garden entitled "Make America Wealthy Again" at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 2, 2025. Trump geared up to unveil sweeping new "Liberation Day" tariffs in a move that threatens to ignite a devastating global trade war. Key US trading partners including the European Union and Britain said they were preparing their responses to Trump's escalation, as nervous markets fell in Europe and America. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)

Trump singled out Australian beef for special mention.

“They’re wonderful people and wonderful everything, but they ban American beef,” Mr Trump said.

“Yet, we imported $3bn of Australian beef from them just last year alone. 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 what? I don’t blame them, but we’re doing the same thing right now.”

Mr Brooks, who, along with his wife, run St Athan Pastoral Co, a 1000 acre regenerative Angus cattle farm nestled in the heart of the Darling Downs, said there were good reasons not to import American beef.

“Their biosecurity is not as rigorous as ours and we don’t want foot and mouth or mad cow disease here,” he said.

Producers in South East Queensland have been getting good prices for their cattle for some time and they are tipped to spike in the short time with southwest producers unable to get their animals to market thanks to recent flooding.

Warwick stock agent Dennis Burke, of McDougall and Sons, said the tariff was not ideal, but still manageable.

“We have a good week of trading this week, across most classes of cattle,” he said.

“The most improvement was in the export line of cattle, driven by a little bit of supply and demand.

“Southern operators are coming up into Queensland to buy because they had a pretty ordinary season.”

The tariffs come at a time when the American herd is at a low point after years of drought.

Back in Wyreema, Mr Brooks said it will take the US years to build up its numbers and in the meantime, Australia will have its pick of the export markets.

“The European Union is actually the biggest market globally and our free trade agreement with them fell over at the last minute due to minor details around naming rights for things like cheese and Prosecco,” he said.

“Trump has shaken up the whole the world and now the EU may well be open to revisiting a free trade agreement which would negate much of the effect of any US tariffs, which may be better in the long run.

“The overall effect that these tariffs will have on global prosperity will outweigh what happens with beef. It will be bad for everyone.”

Leader of the National Party, David Littleproud. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Nationals Leader David Littleproud agreed that pain would be felt by US consumers, more than our exporters.

“It is going to impact the US and consumers of Big Macs right across the country,” he said.

“The reality is what we export to the United States is lean beef, the United States doesn’t produce the quantities that we do to be able to go into that product.

“What President Trump is effectively doing, is tariffing his own country, because they don’t have the supply capacity within the United States to achieve that,

“We do import American beef under strict conditions, frozen beef, but we’re not going to trade away our biosecurity standards.”