Australian cattle producers have been left blindsided by a decision to lift a ban on US beef, but the level of American product arriving in Australia is expected to be very low.
The federal government on Thursday revealed it would lift biosecurity restrictions on US beef as it seeks a way to dampen the blow of President Donald Trump’s volatile tariff regime.
Australia has been mulling over the move for months after Mr Trump requested a lift on the ban, and Agriculture Minister Julie Collins stressed the decision follows a decade-long science-based review.
Cattle Australia CEO Will Evans believed the move would not have been made unless the government had the utmost confidence in the science, but said some would still be unhappy with its decision.
“There’s going to be a lot of people today who feel blindsided by this, there’s going to be a lot of people who are going to feel really frustrated and threatened by this,” he told ABC radio.
“We need to talk to them.
“The US is an incredibly important trading partner – we need to maintain access and we need to maintain relationships with them.”
Some have raised worries US beef could impact Australia’s domestic market, industry representatives remain relatively unperturbed.
“It’s a bit like selling ice to Eskimos,” Australian Meat Industry Council CEO Tim Ryan told ABC.
The domestic beef industry is self-sufficient and any imports of US beef are “unlikely to have any effect on the market here”, Mr Evans said.
The US can’t even meet its own needs, he noted, and remains one of the main export markets for Australian beef.
Likewise, Australian beef is one of the country’s biggest exports to the US and was worth $14 billion in 2024.
But the US president has taken issue with the perceived one-sidedness of this relationship, saying in April, “they won’t take any of our beef”.
The US has been able to send beef to Australia since 2019, though any beef raised in Canada or Mexico before being slaughtered and processed in the US was previously barred due to biosecurity concerns.
One concern was that Mexico’s livestock tracking system could inadvertently lead producers to import beef from parts of the continent where there were disease outbreaks.
But the latest announcement will lift the ban on beef sourced from Canada or Mexico after the US introduced more robust movement controls in late 2024 and early 2025, allowing for improved identification and tracing throughout the supply chain.
“We have not compromised on biosecurity,” Ms Collins told reporters in Canberra.
“Australia stands for open and fair trade – our cattle industry has significantly benefited from this.
“(The department) is satisfied the strengthened control measures put in place by the US effectively manage biosecurity risks.”
The change is widely viewed as a bargaining chip Australia could use while attempting to push for tariff exemptions from the US.
Nationals Leader David Littleproud said he held concerns about its “swiftness”.
“It looks as though it’s been traded away to appease Donald Trump, and that’s what we don’t want,” he told ABC radio.
Opposition trade spokesman Kevin Hogan also said there are more questions to be answered and maintained the government needed to ensure biosecurity protocols had not been weakened.
Ms Collins insists the decision has been part of a years-long science-based process that precedes Mr Trump’s tariffs.
Many Australian goods sent to the US currently face the baseline 10 per cent tariff, while steel and aluminium products have been slapped with a 50 per cent tariff.
Mr Trump has also threatened a tariff on pharmaceutical imports to the US, which is one of Australia’s biggest exports to its ally.
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