This week I attended the Northern Australia Food Futures Conference in Darwin. Among the many fascinating speakers was Michael Every, Global Strategist at Rabobank.
Every captivated the audience with his unique take on Donald Trump’s tariff strategy, suggesting the US will soon expect Australia to impose greater tariffs on China or risk losing the US military alliance and backing we’re used to. He later appeared on ABC Business:
“Australia will have to choose between China or US within months,” says global strategist.
United States President Donald Trump’s main reason for slogging Australia with 10% tariffs is based on the falsehood that US beef is banned here.
“They won’t take any of our beef… I don’t blame them but we’re doing the same thing right now, starting at midnight tonight, I would say,” Trump said.
Thankfully, what briefly sounded like a total ban from our biggest meat export market, turned out to only be a 10% tariff, but it’s still based on fake news.
The Australian Department of Agriculture confirmed that cattle born, raised and slaughtered in the US can be exported to Australia – but that does not extend to cattle born or raised in Canada or Mexico, then slaughtered in the US. So for now, the issue is around traceability.
In Australia we have the National Livestock Identification Scheme (NLIS), and a world leading traceability system, underpinned by the Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) program that gives us a competitive advantage and access to many global markets, including the US.
The US struggles to do the same as its Department of Agriculture’s animal disease traceability regulation mandating the use of electronic identification tags is resisted by many in the industry.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association President, Mark Eisele, who attended Beef 2024 in Rockhampton, raised his concerns in an opinion piece: inaction on traceability unacceptable, while Beef Central’s regular US meat and livestock commentator, Steve Kay went further: US beef’s lack of traceability is a disgrace.
Unfortunately for US cattle producers hoping to sell to Australia, making traceability more reliable won’t change the fact that US beef just can’t compete with Australian beef on price in Australia, so our cattle producers don’t need to worry about being swamped by US imports any time soon.
Let’s hope the 10% tariff doesn’t impact our exports too badly, and that the US might be open to negotiate reducing or eliminating the tariffs when things settle down.
Read more in The Guardian or ABC Landline.
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