Australian beef will remain on American menus while copping the brunt of US tariffs.
President Donald Trump has singled out the product in announcing a blanket 10 per cent tariff on all Australian goods exports to the US.
The tariff is lower than those levied on other exporters such as the European Union, offering some relief to the domestic industry, but the Red Meat Advisory Council is unhappy with the decision announced on Thursday morning, Australian time.
“There is no ban on Australian red meat and our trade with the US will continue,” council chair John McKillop confirmed.
“However, it remains a disappointing decision from the US.”
US consumers could be among the worst hit by the tariffs as Australian beef is in an estimated six billion hamburgers eaten every year in America.
Americans would have to use higher-value cuts of beef in their burgers without Australia providing its lean beef to be blended with fatty trim, Mr McKillop warned, pushing up prices.
Cattle Australia described the tariffs as an own-goal for US consumers and cattle producers.
“US beef producers can’t meet American domestic demand and Australia is the preferred supplier to fill the shortfall of high-quality grass-fed steaks,” chief executive Chris Parker said.
All levies will take effect from midnight US time after Mr Trump laid out his “liberation day” plan at the White House.
While the tariffs on Australian goods were expected, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said they were “totally unwarranted”.
“The administration’s tariffs have no basis in logic and they go against the basis of our two nations’ partnership,” he told reporters in Melbourne.
“This is not the act of a friend.”
The US tariffs vary depending on country and while most were around 25 per cent, Australia’s rate is on the 10 per cent baseline.
Mr Trump slapped the same tariffs on the Heard and McDonald Islands, a barren and uninhabited Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean, and on Christmas Island, the former home to Australia’s offshore immigration detention centres.
But Norfolk Island, another Australian territory in the Pacific Ocean, has been slugged with a 29 per cent tariff even though it only exports about $400,000 in leather shoes and $175,000 in vehicle parts.
While Australia has ruled out reciprocal tariffs, Mr Albanese gave assurances it would not just bend to the US.
Neither will the government Americanise its health system, undermine its media bargaining code or weaken its biosecurity measures – which impose trade barriers on US beef and other American produce to prevent disease and contamination.
Instead, Australia will strengthen its anti-dumping regime to protect domestic steel, aluminium and manufacturing to combat unfair competition.
Labor will also provide $50 million to affected sectors, particularly bodies such as the National Farmers Federation.
Australia has already earmarked $20 million for its “buy Australian” campaign, and the government will prioritise local businesses for procurement and contracts.
Australia’s trade relationships will be diversified, with the government recently signing a new trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates and continuing to pursue an agreement with the European Union.
The nation’s biggest exports to the US are financial services, gold, sheep and goat meat, transportation services and vaccines, as well as beef.
“Australians … they’re wonderful people, wonderful everything, but they ban American beef,” Mr Trump said at the White House.
“Yet we imported $US3 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.”
The US was Australia’s largest red meat export market in 2024 and was worth more than $6 billion, according to the advisory council.
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