Don Farrell points out most Australian beef exported to US goes to fast food giant McDonald’s
Donald Trump’s trade war could raise the price of American hamburgers, Australia’s trade minister has warned, amid fears that tariffs could be extended to beef and other agricultural products.
The trade minister, Don Farrell, said most of Australia’s beef exported to the United States went to fast food giant McDonald’s, and any new tariffs on our goods would inevitably increase the price Americans pay for their cheeseburgers or Big Macs.
He said he would continue pressing for Australian exemptions to Trump’s expanding tariff agenda, conceding he didn’t know what the president would consider in any possible deal, but that he would try to develop “an offer he can’t refuse”.
“I wish I could tell you exactly what the American government is finally going to do. To be honest with you, I suspect they don’t even know themselves,” Farrell told Sky News on Sunday.
The Australian government said it would continue arguing its case to wind back US tariffs of 25% on steel and aluminium exports as part of Trump’s worldwide trade barriers on all nations, and to avoid possible future tariffs on sectors, such as agriculture and medicine. Australian farmers are anxiously waiting to hear whether meat exports will be hit in the next round.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the US tariffs on Australia were not the act of a friendly nation. He said on Sunday, “We have great friends in the United States, and we expect them to act accordingly.”
“Tariffs are a tax on the American buyers of products from right around the world, regardless of where it’s coming from, on steel and aluminium. There are these tariffs, which are a tax on Americans,” Albanese said at a press conference.
“They’re not a tax on the producer, they’re a tax on Americans, which is why we have seen the markets respond in the way that they have, in a very negative way, to these moves by the Trump administration.”
Farrell told Sky he would seek to convince his US counterparts of the folly of not only these particular tariffs but also Trump’s broader trade agenda, including during a call with the US trade envoy on Tuesday.
He said Australia would not consider retaliatory tariffs on America.
“Part of my job is to continue to put the arguments to the Americans that in fact this is the wrong policy to adopt. We should actually be doing the opposite. We should be making more free trade, more fair trade, rather than less trade. And of course, one of the things that we’ve done in government is diversify our trading relationship,” Farrell said.
The United States is Australia’s number one international market for beef, lamb and goat meat. Australian producers sold $6.2bn in beef and meat to the US in 2024, nearly 30% of the $39bn total in that year.
Asked about potential tariffs on agricultural products like beef, Farrell said such a change “would have a significant impact” on both Australian producers and American consumers.
“The significance, of course, to the US about our beef exports is that most of it goes into McDonald’s hamburgers,” he said.
“If you push up the price of those beef exports by 25% or 10% or whatever the figure is, then you simply push up the price of hamburgers in the United States. It doesn’t make sense.”
The Coalition opposition has consistently criticised Albanese for his slate of international travel earlier in his prime ministership, but the deputy opposition leader, Sussan Ley, was critical that Albanese hadn’t travelled to the United States to lobby Trump personally for Australian exemptions.
“This is a Team Australia moment. But where was the captain of the team? He wasn’t there. He didn’t actually go to the US,” Ley told Sky.
“All of our Aukus and Quad leaders personally made the trip to DC to furiously advocate for their country’s interests. We didn’t even have the captain on the field.
“Foundationally, every country’s relationship with the US is based on the relationship between its leader and president Trump – that is clear and consistent between the first Trump administration and the second. Everyone knows that. The president was elected four months ago. Inauguration was two months ago. None of this was a surprise. We were caught completely flat footed.”
Farrell rubbished the Coalition’s claims that it would have gotten a better result. He noted Trump’s public comments that Australia would be considered for an exemption, as well as the crippling trade tariffs on Australian goods levelled by China under the former Coalition government, which have now been removed.
Farrell claimed the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, “couldn’t go two rounds with a revolving door”.