Chinese supermarket shoppers reveal how Donald Trump's brutal tariff move has impacted Aussie beef

Daily Mail​

03-06-2025

Supermarkets in China have beefed up on Aussie meat amid tariff tensions between the US and the Asian superpower.
Australian beef exports to China have soared in recent months in the wake of US president Donald Trump 's sweeping 'liberation day' tariffs regime earlier in the year.
The rival economic superpowers have most recently accused each other of violating a tariff truce struck in Geneva last month.
A Chinese woman shared vision of the meat section of her local supermarket, where shelves were filled with Australian beef where US products were previously stocked.
She held up a 300g package of grain fed Angus beef as she complimented Australian growers.
'I guess I'm having Australian beef for dinner tonight, instead of American beef,' the woman said in English.
'And, honestly, because of the food quality, I probably trust Australian beef better.
'This box of beef right here is 50 RMB which is about $7 USD [AU$10.82].'
@emily.socialsss
China ditches American beef and chose Australian beef instead after this tariff war and I'm not complaining 😌🇦🇺🥩 #china #chinese #australia #australian #aussie #usa #america #american #tradewar #tariff #tariffwar #chinatiktok #travelinchina #chinatravel #xiaohongshu #rednote #viral #trend
♬ original sound - emily.socialsss
The Chinese woman then took a brutal swipe at the US.
'So to answer the question, China ain't hurting,' she said.
'If anything, I think we're probably doing even better because now we have better beef that tastes better and at a better price.
'So thank you Trump for that.'
It comes after an American expat echoed similar sentiments when he stumbled across Australian Wagyu beef in a high-end Shanghai grocery store for $46 CYN ($9 AUD).
'I was going to buy some meat for dinner tonight and I was going to get some ground beef, so what used to be here is American ground beef and now … it says Australian ground beef,' the content creator explained in a TikTok video.
'The whole idea that China is hurting because of the tariffs, they're not, because they just buy from other places because they're not as dependent on the US.
'So China ain't hurting, and I guess we're all gonna start eating Australian beef in China now. I'm sure it tastes good so welcome to the new world.'
Meat and Livestock Australia data showed a hefty increase in the nation's grain fed beef exports to China in 2025.
More than 21,000 tonnes of Australian beef arrived in China in February and March, representing a 40 per cent increase on the same time last year.
In April, Australia exported a record 37,000 tonnes of beef in a single month. China bought a third of that total.
Australian exporters were capitalising on record levels of supply, according to experts.
But MLA's global market analyst Tim Jackson was hesitant to attribute China's growing appetite for Australian meat to the ongoing trade war with the US.
'It's difficult to say at the moment, these are fairly early figures and we'd need to wait for more information to come out and get a better understanding of that trade dynamic,' he previously told the ABC.
The beef trade between the US and China – worth an estimated AU$2.5billion to the Americans – has been largely halted by reciprocal tariff measures.
The US Meat Federation stated 'the majority of US beef production is now ineligible for China' due to trade restrictions in April.
'This impasse definitely hit our March beef shipments harder and the severe impact will continue until China lives up to its commitments under the Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement.'
In April, global meat analyst Brett Stuart said that Australia was the 'lone supplier' of high-quality, white fat marbled beef in China.
'(US beef) sales to China have fallen to zero … and not only is the market now closed based on the March 16 production date, but the combined retaliation tariffs by China now take the tariff on US beef to 116 per cent, a level that will quickly halt trade.'
On Friday, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer accused China of ' violating' a trade agreement made in Geneva in May.
The handshake agreement between the world's two largest economies was widely seen as a way to tamper tensions.
The agreement made between Mr Greer, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and top Chinese officials stipulated that the two countries would unwind tariffs and trade restrictions on certain critical minerals.
Mr Greer accused China of slow-walking that process during the interview Friday.
China was hit with a tariff rate in excess of 145 percent earlier this year before the agreement, but the rate then came down to around 30 percent.
Trump said he expected to talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping during an Oval Office press conference with Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader Elon Musk on Friday.