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Melbourne, Australia – Australia has announced that it would reduce restrictions on American beef imports in a move, the administration of President Trump claimed as a major victory over “non -scientific trade barriers” to trade.
The Minister of Agriculture, Julie Collins, said Thursday that the relaxation of the restrictions designed to maintain free Australia of mad cow disease, also known as spongiform bovine or ESB encephalopathy, would not compromise biosecurity.
“Australia means Open and Free -Trade – Our livestock industry has benefited considerably,” Collins said in a press release.
The Trump administration calls it a “major commercial breakthrough”
The American secretary of agriculture, Brooke L. Rollins, responded to the announcement of Australia by congratulating Mr. Trump for a “major commercial breakthrough which gives greater access to American beef producers selling to Australia”.
She delivered a declaration Under the title: “Make agriculture large again for commercial victories.”
“American farmers and breeders produce the safest and healthiest beef in the world. It is absurd that non -scientific commercial barriers have prevented our beef from being sold to consumers in Australia in the past 20 years,” said Rollins. “It is over time to put American farmers on the sidelines. It is yet another example of the type of access to the market that the president is negotiating to bring America to a new golden age of prosperity, with American agriculture paving the way.”
Nick Oxford / Reuters 
Australia has authorized imports of beef cultivated in the United States since 2019, but has not authorized imports from the United States of beef from Canada or Mexico due to the risk of illness.
The United States has recently introduced additional movement controls that identify and draw all the cattle of Mexico and Canada to its original farms. Australian authorities have been “satisfied with the reinforced control measures implemented by the United States effectively managing the risk of biosecurity,” said Collins.
The time of new reduced restrictions has not been finalized.
Trump attacked Australian import restrictions on American beef when he announced in April that prices of at least 10% would be placed on Australian imports, with steel and aluminum facing a 50% price.
“Prohibited Australia – and they are wonderful, and all wonderful people – but they prohibit American beef,” Trump told journalists. “However, we imported $ 3 billion in Australian beef from last year.
The opposition legislator, David Littleproud, said that he suspected that the government endangered the Australian cattle industry to appease Trump.
Concerns about crazy cow disease in imported cattle
“I want to see science and it should be based on science. I am wary of the speed at which it was done,” LittleProud told journalists.
“We must give confidence to industry, but also to you (the public): it is not only a question of animal welfare, it is a question of human well-being, it is potentially the ESB which is in this country and to have a human impact, so I think it is important that the government is very transparent on science and I do not think that it is beyond the question of having an independent panel to give confidence to everyone.”
About 70% of the Australian beef is exported. Producers fear that the export market will disappear overnight if diseases, including Australian cattle infected with mad cow or mouth.
According to American centers for the control and prevention of diseases, there was Only six cases of American livestock BSE Since the major international epidemic of disease – which was centered in the United Kingdom and other European countries – in the late 1980s and early 1990s. One of these cows was imported from Canada and would have been infected there, and the other five, “were diagnosed with atypical ESB, which many researchers believe they are a sporadic disease not caused by contaminated foods” CDC.
Will Evans, managing director of Cattle Australia, who represents more than 52,000 beef producers in the country across the country, said that he was convinced that the Department of Agriculture had adopted a cautious approach to American imports.
“The department has undertaken a technical scientific assessment and we must trust it. They made this evaluation themselves. They said:” We have examined this, we have examined the best science, this is a decision with which we feel comfortable “,” said Evans.
“When you have an industry of $ 75 billion (Australian $ 50 billion) which is counting on them not making this mistake, I am sure they were very cautious in their decision-making,” he added.
But the Australian demand for American beef should remain low despite the restricted restrictions, for reasons including a relatively low Australian dollar.
Will Australians buy more American beef?
Evans, from Cattle Australia, said The Australian Broadcasting Corporation He was not worried about the new government policy flooding the internal market of Australia with the American beef. He said that the American internal market currently depends on imports from Australian beef, which, he said, was about 50 cents cheaper than the American beef per book.
“The probability of returning to them (we) turning around and turning to Australia as a very great market [to export to] is very weak, “he said.” If I were an American beef exporter, I would consider Japan, Korea and China as really viable and precious markets. I don’t really think Australia is very good on this list. “”
Simon Quilty, Global Agri Trends analyst, agreed that it was unlikely that Australian consumers will soon see the beef in their grocery shelves.
“Honestly, if there is an American beef book sent to Australia over the next three years, I will be Gobacopé,” he told ABC.
David Gray / AFP via Getty 
Beef price increased in the United States For years, due to factors, including prolonged drought and the reduction in the number of domestic herds. The average price of a chopped beef book in the United States reached $ 6.12 in June, up almost 12% compared to a year ago, according to US government data. The average price of all non -cooked beef steaks increased by $ 11.49 per book.
The opposition of Australia at any American rate will be raised on the agenda when Prime Minister Anthony Albanians will provide his first face -to -face meeting with Mr. Trump.
Albanese and Mr. Trump had to keep a one-on-one meeting on the sidelines of a group of seven seven in Canada last month, but the American president left early.
Albanese expects the pair to meet this year, although no date has been announced.
The two countries have had a bilateral free trade agreement for 20 years and the United States has maintained a trade surplus with Australia for decades.
