Albanese and Rudd will have to sell very different messages on US beef ban's end

Sydney Morning Herald

4 days ago

If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, as the anachronistic saying goes, could Donald Trump's love of beef be the key to a tariff exemption for Australia?
Anthony Albanese will be hoping so, but the decision to end import restrictions on beef from the United States presents his government with a delicate communications challenge. He must convince Australians the decision is entirely science-based while simultaneously leading Trump to believe the move is a response to his forceful advocacy for US cattle exporters.
The hamburger-scoffing president had beef on the brain when he stood in the White House Rose Garden in April to announce his liberation day tariffs. Australians, Trump said, were 'wonderful people' but '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,' Trump fumed.
Trump's comments sparked fears of an imminent US ban on Australian beef that did not eventuate, but his grievance with Australian import rules permeated his administration.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick blasted biosecurity measures that stopped American agricultural exports as 'nonsense', saying: 'One-point-four billion people in India and we can't sell them corn, Europe won't let us sell beef, Australia won't let us sell beef.'
Loading
Cattle ranchers are a key part of Trump's voting base. He is an avid beef eater who once marketed his own brand of steaks. He delights in eating McDonald's aboard his presidential jet.
The US has technically been able to export beef to Australia since 2019, but beef sourced from Canada or Mexico, and slaughtered in the US, had been banned because of disease concerns. The integrated nature of the US supply chain meant that little beef made its way to Australia (before even getting into the issue of whether Australians want to buy grain-fed American beef rather than our own grass-fed meat). That rule has now been scrapped.