'There's nothing suspicious': Trade Minister Don Farrell grilled over surprise scrapping of US beef import restrictions

Sky News AU

4 days ago

Trade Minister Don Farrell has denied the decision to end a de facto ban on US beef imports has anything to do with US trade negotiations, despite President Donald Trump specifically citing the biosecurity restrictions as a justification for tariffs.
Mr Farrell was grilled over the decision on Thursday, with Sky News Australia's Laura Jayes questioning the suspicious timing of the announcement.
'We don't link biosecurity issues with trade issues. They're separate issues,' the Trade Minister said.
A blanket ban on US beef imports - imposed following a mad cow disease in 2003 - was repealed in 2019.
But biosecurity rules have remained in place due to the risk of beef from third-party countries being imported through the US, and no American beef has been imported under the new scheme.
President Trump singled out the restrictions when announcing Australian exports to the US would be subject to a 10 per cent tariff.
'Australia bans – and they're wonderful people, and wonderful everything – but they ban American beef,' President Trump said.
But Mr Farrell said the decision to remove the restrictions was the result of a lengthy review conducted over the past decade.
'This is not a process that's started since the election of President Trump. It goes back a very, very long period of time,' he said
'A process that's been going now for about 10 years... has taken place. It's been a very lengthy review, and the review has found that it is now appropriate for Australia to receive American beef.
'We apply a very strict test in terms of whether the product is safe to be brought into Australia and that there is no risk to the Australian beef or cattle industry… and all of those tests have now been satisfied by the Department of Agriculture."
When challenged on the timing of the decision, Mr Farrell said there was "nothing suspicious about this at all'.
'The job of the federal government is to make absolutely certain that there is no biosecurity risk as a result of that, we've done that,' he said.
'We've got some of the top scientists in the world. We've kept out disease for a very long period of time in Australia. We want to continue keeping it out. But if the Americans are able to satisfy those tests, and that's what they've done, then we're prepared to allow them to import their beef.'
But asked what specifically the US had done to satisfy Australia's requirements, the Trade Minister seemed not to know.
'Look, I'm not a scientist,' Mr Farrell said.
'We are satisfied as a result of what advice we've received from the American government that they meet those tests, so we are not going to risk our biosecurity by allowing product in that doesn't meet those tests that that test has to be met."
Pressed on whether this meant Australia would simply take the US word that their products were safe, the Trade Minister reiterated that 'Americans have to satisfy the very high standards of biosecurity that the Australian government applies to every product that we bring in from overseas.'
'Can I say this ... our Australian agricultural scientists would not be allowing any product to come into Australia that does not meet our very strict biosecurity rules,' he said.
'We're not going to risk our industry. I mean, one of the reasons that we sell so much beef overseas, it's one of our biggest exports, one of our biggest agricultural exports, is that people have great faith in our biosecurity rules, and we're very strict about them.
'We're not going to drop our standards in any way when we allow beef to come in from overseas."
'But if those countries can satisfy those rules, then we're prepared to allow them to bring their product into Australia.'
Asked whether there had been any recent developments in trade negotiations with the US, Mr Farrell said Australian representatives continued to argue that the decision to impose tariffs on Australia is the 'wrong course of action'.
'Every opportunity I get, every opportunity the prime minister gets, or the foreign minister gets, we push the case for the removal of these tariffs,' he said.
'We believe that we have a very strong argument to prosecute with the United States government that they should remove all tariffs on Australian products. We're going to continue at every opportunity we get to prosecute that argument.
'We think that because of our trading relationship with the United States, and the fact that it is so much in the favour of the United States, all of these tariffs should be removed. And we'll keep saying it.'
'My job and the job of the Albanese government is to prosecute the argument with the Americans until such time as they realise that these tariffs on Australia are a mistake.
'But we're not going to do anything that risks our biosecurity, and we're not going to do anything that impacts on our national interest.'