Prime Minister Anthony Albanese under pressure to stand firm on US beef imports amid biosecurity concerns

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is under pressure to firmly reject any move to cave into US President Donald Trump on easing biosecurity laws for US beef imports.

Government officials reportedly told the Sydney Morning Herald that Australia could soften its biosecurity laws to allow US beef into the country without risks to local industry, in a move aimed at defusing trade tensions with Mr Trump.

Now, Nationals Leader David Littleproud is urging Mr Albanese not to use Australia’s cattle industry as a trade-off in negotiations with the US President.

“There needs to be certainty. The Prime Minister needs to rule it out immediately,” the Nationals Leader told Sky News.

“He needs to make sure that he’s very clear with Australian producers that our biosecurity standards will not be reduced and that … if we want to get imports that originated from Mexico or Canada, that there’s some traceability on it like Australian producers have.”

He called on the Prime Minister to provide clarity to Australian beef producers amid ongoing concerns about the country’s biosecurity measures following reports of tweaking the laws.

“I don’t think Australian producers are asking for anything unfair here, they’re just trying to protect their production systems, making sure that they can not only feed Australians but feed the world,” Mr Littleproud said.

“The Prime Minister and his department who are mooting these things need to be very, very clear with Australian beef producers that it’s not on the table and it won’t be on the table at all.

“But when you start getting these reports - you don’t start seeing these reports unless there’s smoke and when there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

Australia banned US beef imports in 2003 following a mad cow disease outbreak, before lifting the ban in 2019 once the outbreak had subsided.

Australian beef producers are urging the government not to loosen biosecurity protections.

“Australia’s biosecurity status is integral to the success and sustainability of our agricultural industries,” National Farmers Federation president David Jochinke said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese assured farmers the Government would make no compromises on biosecurity.

But as long as biosecurity was protected, Mr Albanese said he would be open to discussions about easing restrictions.

David Humphreys, vice chair of industry body Western Beef Association, was open to the idea as well.

As long as Australia’s biosecurity standards were protected, it would be a beneficial outcome for all Australian farmers if it could be used as leverage to lower US tariffs, he said.

Assuming US beef imports posed no disease risk, the impacts for Australian farmers from extra competition would be limited.

“Australia has very competitive and relatively cheap beef production in comparison,” Mr Humphreys told AAP.

“Any beef that’s coming in from the US is probably going to be targeting quite select segments of beef consumption, probably the cheaper cuts, produced beef products.

“So it’s not really competing with the premium Australian beef products that our beef farms produce.”

The low exchange rate of the Australian dollar as well as the high cost of transporting US beef also reduced the likelihood of it outcompeting homegrown products, he said.

Local consumers are accustomed to leaner, higher-quality Australian beef and unlikely to be won over by fatty, hormone-injected American competitors.

“I think there’s not a lot of risk to Australian producers of beef, with this possibility of some limited US beef being imported into Australia,” Mr Humphreys said.

Australia’s Department of Agriculture is reviewing its ban on Mexican and Canadian beef slaughtered in the US.

Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said any decision to allow greater access for US beef would be based on science and evidence.

- With AAP