Agriculture department confirms US beef not banned in Australia

"Australia bans — and they're wonderful people, and wonderful everything — but they ban American beef," he said.

"Yet we imported $[US]3 billion of Australian beef from them just last year alone. They won't take any of our beef."

But is the US president correct?

The Sizzler years

Global Agritrends global meat trader and analyst Simon Quilty remembers trading imported US beef in the 1990s.

"It was a really small window to bring that beef in, normally around August, September when there was a price fall in America," he said.

"At the time we had topsides coming in and sold to a restaurant chain called Sizzler.

Australia placed restrictions on importing fresh US beef in 2003, after the US experienced an outbreak of mad cow disease.

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Australia has not imported beef from the United States since 2005.

Born, raised and slaughtered

The Australian Department of Agriculture has confirmed there is no ban on importing United States beef.

"Import conditions into Australia are currently available for beef products sourced from cattle born, raised and slaughtered in the United States (US)," a department statement read.

"However, the US has not commenced trade under these terms and has requested to expand its access to include beef products sourced from cattle from Mexico and Canada and legally imported into the US for export to Australia.

"Australia's assessment for this additional US request is progressing." 

Cattle Australia chief executive Chris Parker said Mr Trump's logic for the new tariff on Australian beef was flawed.

He said it failed to recognise that the US had had access to the Australian market since 2019, provided it could demonstrate its beef came from cattle born, raised and slaughtered in the US.

Other countries allowed to export beef to Australia are Japan and New Zealand.

Price is not right

Mr Quilty said US beef was perhaps facing a "quasi-ban" from accessing the Australian market.

"This is all related to the requirements for biosecurity and in particular traceability of cattle," he said.

"The terminology at the moment is US beef is allowed here [Australia], but the concern is Canadian and Mexican cattle that go into America, are fed and slaughtered there — are those cattle traceable?

"That question has been on the table to America for several years and up until now, with the Trump administration stepping in, that question had not been addressed.

"But there's now an urgency and I think this will be addressed very quickly."

Mr Quilty said cattle traceability systems had improved across North America, but he doubted it would be viable to export US beef to Australia.

In 2024, Australia produced more beef than ever before, turning off 2.57 million tonnes of beef, of which a record 1.34 million tonnes was exported around the world.