Australian farmers react to Trump’s new 10% import tax

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Beef farmers are breathing a sigh of relief at the news America’s tariff on red meat is less than expected. With its high reliance on the US market Tasmania had been bracing for the worst.

Transcript

00:00It's fair to say that farmers across Tasmania have met the news of a 10% tariff with somewhat

00:09of a sense of relief compared to what it could have been.

00:13In this region, America is an incredibly important export market.

00:17I've got here with me now Bernard Atkins, a livestock agent who can explain a bit more

00:22about that.

00:23Bernard, how important is America to Tasmania and this region in particular?

00:28Well good afternoon Mel, it's very important to the fact is that a lot of beef out of Tasmania

00:34ends up into America, especially ground beef.

00:37We've seen last year all total exports out of Australia of $3.4 billion, which is massive.

00:48A lot of people don't understand though that with tariff that we've had this morning that

00:52I believe that's fairly light to what it could have been.

00:55Is that a relief?

00:56Is that welcome news?

00:57Well it's very much a relief and a lot of other people don't understand either that.

01:01The average person in the street wouldn't understand that the exports that we put into

01:06America, we take double back from America in all sorts of things, from phones to electrical

01:12products and so on and so on.

01:14And when their product comes in, the Americans' imports come into Australia, remember that

01:19we put 10% GST on that and a lot of people forget about that.

01:24And so what they've actually done with our beef, they're putting 10% on our beef when

01:28it arrives back into America.

01:31That is going to affect certain things, mainly the American public that go to McDonalds and

01:36Hungry Jacks because the biggest percentage of our export of beef, which was as I said

01:42$3.4 billion worth, is ending up in those big companies in America.

01:49And that's the trim, so all that bit of the animal that's not the premium steaks, that's

01:54all ground up and put into burgers.

01:56Why do they take all of that?

01:58Because they haven't got enough.

01:59The American herd now is about at 48% to 49% of what it should normally be.

02:05They've lost millions of cattle within droughts and so forth and weather conditions.

02:12So they are hungry for our beef and our beef is the best beef in the world, without doubt.

02:18Despite Tasmania's reliance on the US as an export market, it seems farmers are fairly

02:24relieved that their tariffs are not as bad as it could have been and frankly they have

02:28bigger fish to fry at the moment.

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