{"id":22055,"date":"2025-03-13T13:46:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T13:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/?p=22055"},"modified":"2025-03-13T13:57:52","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T13:57:52","slug":"beef-levy-weighing-in-on-australias-shores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/03\/13\/beef-levy-weighing-in-on-australias-shores\/","title":{"rendered":"Beef levy weighing in on Australia\u2019s shores?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Australia is keeping a weather eye on a possible beef levy by April 2, 2025 if the U.S. taxes agricultural imports. \u00a0This amid uptick\u00a0export prices<\/a><\/u>\u00a0of Aussie trim beef bound for the U.S., by\u00a026%\u00a0<\/u><\/a>year-on-year, up to mid-February, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hints of a beef surtax surfaced on March 2 when President Trump advised federal farmers to have \u201cfun\u201d and prepare for agricultural tariffs.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If tariffs do steam into Australia, outbound steel and aluminium could be the first American target, reprising botched 2018 tariffs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beef and lamb dispatches to the United States worth A$5 billion ($3.15 billion) could be next, a blow on majority family producers. \u00a0Put into proper perspective, beef shipments alone to the U.S. generated\u00a0A$4.16 billion<\/u><\/a>\u00a0($2.62 billion) in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The timing for this trade threat is spot on a currently prosperous beef and live cattle export market ofAustralia. Analysts expect this double sector to generate A$15 billion<\/u><\/a> ($9.44 billion) in the 2025-26 market year, which nears 2023-24\u2019s returns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luckily, Australia does not have a trade deficit in its favor against the United States and this could mean no tariffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia\u2019s Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles himself seems to see this possibility by telling ABC that they won’t retaliate<\/u><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheep and\u00a0Beef Levy Call<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But not so in the U.S., where R-CALF, a farmers\u2019 championing group, has been asking for 25% agricultural tariffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

R-Calf says that Aussie sheep imports currently represent 70% of American market sales while local producers only manage 30% market share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beef exports could also incur A$400 million ($251.8 million) in export losses in the case of tariffs. This according to Patrick Hutchison of the think tank, Gibraltar Strategic Advisory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hutchison links the losses to the possible saturation of alternative destinations such as Japan by tariff-hit nations. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cattle farmers have a leeway however, for they currently enjoy the benefits of the 2005 Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accord sets annual quotas for specific agricultural produce bound to the U.S., above which a varying duty applies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides, before any beef levy hits,\u00a0rising export prices<\/u><\/a>\u00a0will have generated the estimated A$15.8 billion ($9.95 billion) for the Aussie beef sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, is beef the newest market product to get under a damaging bilateral trade war after soybeans? For now, it remains one of Australia\u2019s biggest agricultural exports to the U.S., as the statistics below show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia-U.S. Beef Export Statistics<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The United States commands between 22.7% (2023) and 27.5%<\/u><\/a> (2024) of all beef exports by Australia. As the biggest single destination for Aussie beef in 2024, the U.S. brought A$4.16 billion <\/u>($2.62 billion)<\/a> in export revenue to Australia\u2019s producers. Inclusive of live cattle and veal shipments, this value triples to around A$15 billion<\/u><\/a> ($9.44 billion), per a 2025-26 estimate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Has the U.S. always been the main destination for Aussie beef<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States has not always been the top market for Australia\u2019s beef. In 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022, Japan led beef exports with average 25% market share<\/u><\/a>. This is even as the U.S. took over the lead from 2023  onward with 25-27% market share. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there a beef tariff\u00a0on\u00a0Aussie beef exports to the U.S.<\/strong>?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There has been no extant beef tariff in recent years, courtesy of the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA). In 2021, Australia could export\u00a0438,214 tonnes\u00a0<\/u><\/a>to the U.S and would only incur a\u00a03.52%<\/u><\/a>\u00a0duty above this quota. The 2022 quota was 448,214 tonnes but had 0% tariff even above the quota. This is unlike Canada, which charges an 8% tariff on Australia\u2019s beef, as of 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does the U.S. command high beef import prices<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. buys Aussie beef at between\u00a0A$8.03 and 11.38<\/u><\/a>\u00a0($5.05-7.16) per kg, as of 2024. This is slightly more than rival Japan\u2019s import price of between A$7.93 and A$10.09 ($4.99-6.35) per kg in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia is keeping a weather eye on a possible beef levy by April 2, 2025 if the U.S. taxes agricultural imports. \u00a0This amid uptick\u00a0export prices\u00a0of Aussie trim beef bound for the U.S., by\u00a026%\u00a0year-on-year, up to mid-February, 2025. Hints of a beef surtax surfaced on March 2 when President Trump advised federal farmers to have \u201cfun\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18982,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nBeef levy weighing in on Australia\u2019s shores? - Selina Wamucii | Food & Agriculture News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/03\/13\/beef-levy-weighing-in-on-australias-shores\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beef levy weighing in on Australia\u2019s shores? - Selina Wamucii | Food & Agriculture News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Australia is keeping a weather eye on a possible beef levy by April 2, 2025 if the U.S. taxes agricultural imports. \u00a0This amid uptick\u00a0export prices\u00a0of Aussie trim beef bound for the U.S., by\u00a026%\u00a0year-on-year, up to mid-February, 2025. 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