Australia to lift import curbs on US beef to pacify Trump

Australia intends to remove restrictions on US beef imports in a bid to appease President Donald Trump, who had highlighted Canberra’s biosecurity measures as an unfair impediment to trade.

Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said the Australian government will lift restrictions from next week on the import of red meat that originates in either Canada or Mexico and is later slaughtered in the US.

Australia barred US beef imports in 2003 following an outbreak of mad cow disease, and only eased some restrictions in 2019.

Amid questions over whether the decision was a capitulation to Trump, Collins said in a statement on Thursday that there had been “a rigorous science and risk-based assessment over the past decade” and the government now considered that “the strengthened control measures put in place by the US effectively manage biosecurity risks.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had previously said he wouldn’t weaken Australia’s biosecurity regime simply to satisfy Trump’s demands.

Trump singled out Australia’s refusal to take exports of US beef in April when he unveiled his “reciprocal” tariffs.

“They’re wonderful people and wonderful everything, but they ban American beef. Yet we imported $3 billion of Australian beef from them just last year alone,” Trump said in his “Liberation Day” address on April 2.

The US is one of Australia’s largest markets for red meat, with beef shipments rising by 23% in June from a year earlier despite the current 10% tariff on all Australian exports to the US.

US producers welcomed the announcement, with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association directly thanking Trump in an emailed statement for “delivering yet another trade win for America’s cattle farmers and ranchers.”

Australian farmers were more cautious, with the National Farmers’ Federation President David Jochinke saying his industry had been assured by the government that a proper review process had been undertaken.

“The NFF’s been clear that the revised request from the US needed to undergo the standard, science-based assessment to protect our biosecurity, and should be dealt with separate from any tariff negotiations,” he said in a statement on Thursday.