Melbourne, Australia — Australia introduced it is going to cut back restrictions on U.S. beef imports in a transfer President Trump’s administration claimed as a serious victory over “non-scientific trade barriers” to commerce.
Agriculture Minister Julie Collins mentioned Thursday that enjoyable the restrictions designed to maintain Australia freed from mad cow illness, also referred to as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, wouldn’t compromise biosecurity.
“Australia stands for open and free trade — our cattle industry has significantly benefited from this,” Collins mentioned in an announcement.
Trump administration calls it a “major trade breakthrough”
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins responded to Australia’s announcement by congratulating Mr. Trump on a “major trade breakthrough that gives greater access to U.S. beef producers selling to Australia.”
She issued an announcement below the headline: “Make Agriculture Great Again Trade Wins.”
“American farmers and ranchers produce the safest, healthiest beef in the world. It’s absurd that non-scientific trade barriers prevented our beef from being sold to consumers in Australia for the last 20 years,” Rollins mentioned. “Gone are the days of putting American farmers on the sidelines. This is yet another example of the kind of market access the President negotiates to bring America into a new golden age of prosperity, with American agriculture leading the way.”
Wagyu cattle feed on the Grasslands Wagyu ranch close to Blanchard, Oklahoma, July 11, 2024.
Nick Oxford/REUTERS
Australia has allowed imports of beef grown within the U.S. since 2019, however not allowed imports from the U.S. of beef sourced from Canada or Mexico due to the illness danger.
The U.S. has lately launched extra motion controls that determine and hint all cattle from Mexico and Canada to their farms of origin. Australian authorities have been “satisfied the strengthened control measures put in place by the U.S. effectively manage biosecurity risks,” Collins mentioned.
The timing of the brand new, lowered restrictions has not been finalized.
Mr. Trump attacked Australian import restrictions on U.S. beef when he introduced in April that tariffs of a minimum of 10% can be positioned on Australian imports, with metal and aluminum going through a 50% tariff.
“Australia bans — and they’re wonderful people, and wonderful everything — but they ban American beef,” Mr. Trump advised reporters then. “Yet we imported $3 billion 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, I don’t blame them, but we’re doing the same thing right now.”
Opposition lawmaker David Littleproud mentioned he suspected the federal government was endangering Australia’s cattle trade to appease Mr. Trump.
Considerations over mad cow illness in imported cattle
“I want to see the science and it should be predicated on science. I’m suspicious of the speed at which this has been done,” Littleproud advised reporters.
“We need to give confidence to the industry, but also to you (the public): this is not just about animal welfare, this is about human welfare, this is about BSE potentially coming into this country and having a human impact, so I think it’s important the government’s very transparent about the science and I don’t think it’s even beyond the question to have an independent panel review that science to give confidence to everybody,” he added.
Round 70% of Australian beef is exported. Producers concern that export market would vanish in a single day if illnesses together with mad cow or foot-and-mouth illness contaminated Australian cattle.
In accordance with the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, there have been solely six BSE circumstances in U.S. cattle because the main worldwide outbreak of the illness — which was centered within the U.Ok. and different European nations — within the late Eighties and early Nineteen Nineties. A kind of cows was imported from Canada and believed to have been contaminated there, and the opposite 5, “were diagnosed with atypical BSE, which many researchers believe to be a sporadic illness not caused by contaminated feed,” the CDC says.
Will Evans, chief govt of Cattle Australia who represents greater than 52,000 grass-fed beef producers throughout the nation, mentioned he was assured the agriculture division had taken a cautious method towards U.S. imports.
“The department’s undertaken a technical scientific assessment and we have to put faith in them. They’ve made this assessment themselves. They’ve said: ‘We’ve looked at this, we’ve looked at the best science, this is a decision that we feel comfortable with,’” Evans mentioned.
“When you have a $75 billion (Australian $50 billion) industry relying on them not making this mistake, I’m sure they’ve been very cautious in their decision-making,” he added.
However Australian demand for U.S. beef is prone to stay low regardless of the eased restrictions, for causes together with a comparatively weak Australian greenback.
Will Australians purchase extra U.S. beef?
Evans, of Cattle Australia, advised the Australian Broadcasting Company he wasn’t nervous in regards to the new authorities coverage flooding Australia’s home market with American beef. He mentioned the U.S. home market at the moment relieds on imports of Australian beef, which he mentioned was about 50 cents cheaper than U.S. beef per pound.
“The likelihood of them (U.S.) turning around and looking to Australia as a really high value market [to export to] is very low,” he mentioned. “If I was an exporter of U.S. beef, I would be looking at Japan, Korea and China as being really viable and valuable markets. I don’t really think Australia rates highly on that list.”
Simon Quilty, an analyst with World Agri Tendencies, agreed that it was unlikely Australian customers would quickly see U.S. beef in on their grocery shops cabinets.
“Honestly, if there is a pound of U.S. beef shipped to Australia in the next three years, I will be gobsmacked,” he advised ABC.
Australian beef merchandise are seen on the market at a grocery retailer in Sydney, Australia, April 3, 2025.
DAVID GRAY/AFP through Getty
Beef costs have been rising within the U.S. for years, attributable to elements together with extended drought and shrinking home herd numbers. The typical value of a pound of floor beef within the U.S. rose to $6.12 in June, up almost 12% from a 12 months in the past, in accordance with U.S. authorities information. The typical value of all raw beef steaks rose 8% to $11.49 per pound.
Australia’s opposition to any U.S. tariffs might be excessive on the agenda when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese secures his first face-to-face assembly with Mr. Trump.
Albanese and Mr. Trump have been to carry a one-on-one assembly on the sidelines of a Group of Seven summit in Canada final month, however the U.S. president left early.
Albanese expects the pair will meet this 12 months, though no date has been introduced.
The 2 nations have had a bilateral free commerce deal for 20 years and the U.S. has maintained a commerce surplus with Australia for many years.
