Farmers for Climate Action (FCA) Media Release
- FCA is disappointed by the USA imposing a 10% tariff on Australian beef, hurting more than 2,000 of its farmer members.
- FCA warns that US consumers will face higher costs, particularly for McDonald’s burgers, due to the tariff.
- FCA stresses that strong climate policies are essential to prevent future tariffs from key trading partners like the European Union and China.
Farmers for Climate Action (FCA), is extremely disappointed to read reports of US President Donald Trump slapping a 10% tariff, or tax, on Australian beef and other farm produce. Of FCA’s 8,400 members, more than a quarter are beef farmers.
The move means Americans will pay more for a Big Mac at McDonald’s, which is where much of Australia’s beef exports end up in the United States.
FCA CEO Natalie Collard said tariffs hurt consumers most.
“This tax on Australian farmers hurts Americans,” she said.
“These tariffs, or taxes, are not ‘reciprocal’; they’re an unprovoked attack on an ally because Australia does not charge US businesses a tax to send products to Australia.”
Ms Collard noted and welcomed the bipartisan opposition to the tariffs in Australia.
In light of this announcement, alternative trade partners and markets will become a priority and given their focus on climate action, Australian producers will need to meet their market entry requirements.
“Now that the US is set to slap Australian beef farmers with tariffs, other export markets become even more important – and those countries are telling Australia they’ll add tariffs to our produce if we don’t take strong action on climate like they are,” Ms Collard said.
“The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism would tax Australian farmers if Australia has weak climate policies, and there’s been talk in trade circles of China considering a similar scheme for some time.
“China’s emissions are likely to peak this year and Australia is a long way behind China on climate policy, as China continues to build renewables at a rate never seen before.”
In order to strengthen Australian farmers’ futures economically we need to prioritise climate-friendly agricultural practices to avoid trade barriers. It’s vital since Australian farmers export 70% of what they produce, according to the National Farmers Federation.
“Strong climate policies and deep emissions reduction this decade are crucial to protecting Australian farmers, who rely so heavily on international trade.”
Dear reader, we need your support
Independent sites such as The AIMN provide a platform for public interest journalists. From its humble beginning in January 2013, The AIMN has grown into one of the most trusted and popular independent media organisations.
One of the reasons we have succeeded has been due to the support we receive from our readers through their financial contributions.
With increasing costs to maintain The AIMN, we need this continued support.
Your donation – large or small – to help with the running costs of this site will be greatly appreciated.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
Australian quality beef is a premium product in high demand and will continue to be sought by US importers and US consumers will pay Trump’s tariff as they will on all of his impositions. We certainly don’t need to be importing US beef as T-Rump suggest we should.
Our only downside is that the extensive flooding in SW Queensland and Western NSW has severely damaged the national herd and the genetic achievements of breeders.
I’m surprised that Trump has managed to impose these consumption taxes on US consumers with hardly a murmur of dissent.
They can murmur all they like. No one is listening!
Well lucky me I no longer live in America.
To think that the head of state has risen from the humble gutfiller, Muck Donald.
If Big Macs cost Americans 10% more will people whinge, or pay up? When the less stupid realise that far from being better off, they are paying more for just about everything maybe the scales will fall from their eyes. But what’s to be done? Trump pushes blindly on.
The Trump voters won’t whinge, RC, their hearts will pump with pride on the false assumption that the extra 10% they fork out is helping to “make America great again”. They’re dimwits.
Given that McDonald French Fries became Freedom Fries post 9/11 when the Yanks chucked a tanty after the French opposed the proposed invasion of Iraq, will they now be called Liberation Fries in celebration of the Burger Muncher’s imposition of tariffs on the rest of the world?
So, 70% of the cattle raised in Australia is for export, and not required for local consumption. Do I really need to point out that grazing cattle is not suitable to most of the Australian environment? It is well known that the damage they do is incredibly detrimental. They aren’t even raised on a proper diet of clover grasses. They are allowed to roam free range over vulnerable native habitats for much of their lives before being herded into feedlots to be fattened up with a diet of grain prior to being slaughtered, with the result that their meat lacks the omega3 they would get from a proper grass diet thus making their meat a serious health hazard to humans who consequently have to have omega3 supplements added to other things they consume, like bread, just to make up for the omega3 deficiency in grain fed beef.
So why not reduce cattle production by two thirds, restricted to those places where they can be fed properly so they produce healthy, properly nutritious meat and put an end to overseas beef exports completely and so avoid the issue of tariffs that seem to me to be the least of the problems with this grossly inefficient industry that pampers to the luxury market of those rich enough to afford to eat beef but unwilling to pay the environmental costs that are required to indulge them.
Of course the National Party will complain loudly and can always be relied upon to use their undemocratic over-representation in Parliament to object against and stymie reforms of any and all inappropriate agricultural practices of their farmer based constituents. It may not be in the National’s interests to reduce the cattle industry, but it is most certainly in the national interest. Slashing essential Public Services in the dubious cause of cutting waste is fine by them, but slashing wasteful, unnecessary and environmentally destructive agriculture is to them as abhorrent as slaying a sacred cow.