On the heels of this success, Australia announced that it will be lifting its import restrictions on U.S. beef. This important step is an encouraging sign of a thaw in bilateral trade relations. Australia’s Department of Agriculture released a critical review. What they discovered was that the U.S. has done an admirable job on the biosecurity front to address threats posed by imported beef.
The U.S. is Australia’s largest beef export market. Only last year, this market was worth around A$14 billion (£6.8 billion, $9.2 billion). This is a monumental choice for the Australian economy. Given the loss of popular support for TPP, it contributes to keeping solid trade relations with the United States, considered an essential trading partner for the last 78 years.
Agriculture Minister Julie Collins stated that the department undertook a “rigorous science and risk-based assessment” before arriving at this conclusion. Collins emphasized that “this decision has been purely based on science,” underscoring the thorough evaluation process.
That ban on American beef has been in place since 2003. This ban was adopted following the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (bse), or mad cow disease, and has been a lightning rod for debate ever since. Australia followed suit, formally lifting the ban in 2019. Yet these same restrictions on cattle from Mexico and Canada shut U.S. beef out of the country due to the interconnected supply chains.
Canberra’s announcement to restore access comes after a decade-long examination found significant advancements in U.S. beef safety protocols. The Australian government repeatedly insisted that there was no connection between this decision and previous trade disputes with the Trump administration. This prior administration was a major source of open counter-criticism toward Australia’s trade practices, implementing tariffs that greatly affected the beef sector.
David Littleproud, leader of the junior partner in the Coalition, the Nationals party, underlined the concern about abandoning the U.S. He reiterated that Australia would not trade away biosecurity, but placed substantial focus on the importance of having a stable trade relationship.
A new report by Meat and Livestock Australia proves that tariffs have not stopped trade in its tracks. In actuality, trade has increased by nearly a third this year! This data adds credence to the idea that lifting the travel ban would significantly increase the economic exchange between our two countries.
The United States has effectively taken important steps forward with enhanced cattle tracing protocols. This new improvement allows regulators to better trace where cattle came from and react quickly in the event of disease outbreaks. This new development was probably a factor in Australia’s rethinking of its import policies.