Australian beef producers are bracing for the possibility of restrictions and tariffs from the United States as the Albanese government desperately attempts to protect one of the country’s most important export industries.
US President Donald Trump has continued his rampant imposition of tariffs after threatening 200 per cent duties on European alcohol.
Trump’s threat came in response to a European Union plan to impose tariffs on American whiskey and other products next month — which itself is a response to Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports that took effect on Wednesday.
Despite its plea, Australia was not given a key exemption from the steel and aluminium duties.
The government has downplayed the effect on Australia’s metals industry with Trade Minister Don Farrell claiming the nation “shouldn’t panic”.
“This has obviously been a bad decision and the Prime Minister has come out and criticised the decision and we will continue to prosecute our argument that this is the wrong direction,” Mr Farrell said on Friday.
“Obviously the wrong direction for Australia because we are a free and fair trading nation but it’s also the wrong direction for the United States.”
However, the attention is quickly shifting to beef and wine exporters, with Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood revealing the imposition of tariffs on red meat was the “real deal”.
“In 2024, last year, US exports of beef and veal were around 88, 000 tonnes, up by 60 per cent … now, 31 per cent of total beef and veal exports from Australia, about a third of it goes to America,” Mr Greenwood said.
“And the value of US beef exports are $3.4 billion a year. So when you compare that to all those other things, including wine, which is about $350 million, the reality is that the beef is the big one.”
Mr Greenwood said the farming lobby in America is going to “push pretty aggressively” for Donald Trump to impose the tariff.
Cattle Australia Chief Executive Dr Chris Parker said the organisation was also “extremely concerned” by Trump’s “protectionist comments” about tariffs on agricultural products.
He told Skynews.com.au that while there is not yet enough information to determine the potential ramifications on the Australian beef industry, “promoting free trade and market access is a fundamental issue” for his organisation.
“Cattle Australia (CA) is extremely concerned by the protectionist comments from the US President regarding potential implementation of tariffs on agricultural products,” Dr Parker said.
“CA has been monitoring the situation in the United States for some time but there is still very limited information available from the US Government.
“Until more information is available it is not possible to estimate the potential impact on the Australian industry.
“Australia has worked hard to gain market access and negotiate trade agreements around the world, which provides the beef export sector with some resilience – we do not want to see that compromised.”
Mr Greenwood argued Australia was “pretty sensitive” when it came to the imposition of tariffs, citing those China slapped on Australian wine exports a few years ago.
“Of course when China whacked tariffs on Australia’s wine industry, you know, the reality is that our sales to China just collapsed,” he said.
He said once the tariffs were lifted, there was “a sudden big increase” in wine sales going back to China.
“So the Australian wine industry now gearing itself back to get back in.”
“When of course China whacked Australia with those tariffs then what happened was many Australian winemakers went and tried to put a lot more wine into the United States.
“And that is the danger when it comes to Donald Trump looking at individual products and with the wine industry in suddenly saying ‘hey put some tariffs on us’, because frankly that might stop some of the Australian wine and the European wine getting into America.”
The Trade Minister said he was “deeply concerned” about the potential tariffs on beef exports as he spoke at the Global Food Forum in Melbourne on Friday.
He argued what was Australia needed to do was diversify its trading partners.
“On Tuesday night, I spoke with my Korean counterpart, they’d also gone to the United States. They’d also had no success in getting any exemptions. What they want to do is talk about greater two -way trade between Australia and Korea,” he said.
“We’ve talked about the United Arab Emirates. If we can get our beef and our lamb into the United Arab Emirates tariff-free, then we’ve got an advantage ahead of all other producers.
“Let’s look at India – our trade with India is now up 100 per cent agricultural trade, up 138 per cent. since our new free trade agreement.
“Our beef exports to the United Kingdom are up 50 per cent from where we were before we had a trade agreement.”
-With Reuters
