Australia has lifted remaining bans on beef imports from the US as the ongoing battle to secure an exemption from Donald Trump’s tariff regime continues.
Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth confirmed on Today that a decade-long review into the imports of US beef had been completed.
“That review has been undertaken and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry believe that there are the right controls in place in the US to lift that ban,” she said.
“My understanding is that will be lifted as a result of a decade-long review.”
That source emphasised that Australia’s biosecurity would remain uncompromised by the change, a stance Rishworth also took.
“We are not we are not compromising on biosecurity. I need to make that very clear,” she said.
“We believe in free and fair trade. And our farmers very much benefit from being able to export their products right around the world.”
The revelation comes ahead of US President Donald Trump’s proclaimed August 1 deadline for increased blanket tariffs on imports to the US.
Australia is currently subjected to a baseline 10 per cent tariff on all US exports, including beef, with a 50 per cent tariff on steel and aluminium.
Trump has also threatened to increase the tariff on imported pharmaceuticals to 200 per cent.
The baseline tariff could as much as double to 20 per cent on the August 1 deadline, Trump warned in recent weeks.
In April, when rolling out his “Liberation Day” tariff plan, Trump singled out Australian beef.
With a jump from a cliff, two men changed thrillseeking
“Australia bans – and they’re wonderful people, and wonderful everything – but they ban American beef,” he said then.
“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 and you know, I don’t blame them but we’re doing the same thing right now starting at midnight tonight, I would say.”
A ban on beef imports from the US was put in place more than 20 years ago after an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, which can lead to fatal brain disease in humans.
The blanket ban was lifted in 2019 for cattle raised and slaughtered in the US, but remained for cattle that had been raised in Canda and Mexico, but slaughtered in and exported from the US.
It’s those latter bans which have now been lifted, after the review reportedly found the US had improved its tracking protocols.
