‘Biosecurity isn't a bargaining chip': Farmers push back on using beef to butter up Trump
Farmers insist that the nation's strict biosecurity regime must not be watered down to appease Donald Trump, following news that the Albanese government will make moves to enable US beef exports into Australia as part of a plan to gain an exemption from the US president's tariffs.
This masthead revealed on Friday that changes to controls on US beef imports would be made via an ongoing biosecurity rule review, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese prepares to meet Trump later this month.
National Farmers Federation president David Jochinke said Australia's disease-free status was crucial for Australia's $20 billion red meat sector, which depends on its clean reputation to export around 75 per cent of its product to countries around the world.
'Let's be abundantly clear, our biosecurity isn't a bargaining chip. We have the world's best standards, backed by science, and that's how it needs to stay,' Jochinke said.
Australia is seeking exemptions to the US's sweeping tariff regime. The Trump administration has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on Australian steel and aluminium imports and a 10 per cent impost on all other goods.
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US beef was banned from Australia in 2003, following an outbreak in cattle of mad cow disease – an illness that can cause a fatal brain disorder in humans. The ban was lifted in 2019, as the mad cow outbreak subsided, but a key sticking point remains.
The US beef industry wants export access for cattle that has been raised in Mexico and Canada but slaughtered in the US – a common practice for the nation's vast number of beef abattoirs.
However, Australian biosecurity officials have not approved exports from these countries, and farmers are wary that their export access could be compromised if diseases like mad cow or foot and mouth get in. The federal government has estimated that a foot-and-mouth outbreak could cost the economy $80 billion.
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