Beef farmers are breathing a sigh of relief at the news America’s tariff on red meat is less than expected. With its high reliance on the US market Tasmania had been bracing for the worst.
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00:00It's fair to say that farmers across Tasmania have met the news of a 10% tariff with somewhat
00:09of a sense of relief compared to what it could have been.
00:13In this region, America is an incredibly important export market.
00:17I've got here with me now Bernard Atkins, a livestock agent who can explain a bit more
00:22about that.
00:23Bernard, how important is America to Tasmania and this region in particular?
00:28Well good afternoon Mel, it's very important to the fact is that a lot of beef out of Tasmania
00:34ends up into America, especially ground beef.
00:37We've seen last year all total exports out of Australia of $3.4 billion, which is massive.
00:48A lot of people don't understand though that with tariff that we've had this morning that
00:52I believe that's fairly light to what it could have been.
00:55Is that a relief?
00:56Is that welcome news?
00:57Well it's very much a relief and a lot of other people don't understand either that.
01:01The average person in the street wouldn't understand that the exports that we put into
01:06America, we take double back from America in all sorts of things, from phones to electrical
01:12products and so on and so on.
01:14And when their product comes in, the Americans' imports come into Australia, remember that
01:19we put 10% GST on that and a lot of people forget about that.
01:24And so what they've actually done with our beef, they're putting 10% on our beef when
01:28it arrives back into America.
01:31That is going to affect certain things, mainly the American public that go to McDonalds and
01:36Hungry Jacks because the biggest percentage of our export of beef, which was as I said
01:42$3.4 billion worth, is ending up in those big companies in America.
01:49And that's the trim, so all that bit of the animal that's not the premium steaks, that's
01:54all ground up and put into burgers.
01:56Why do they take all of that?
01:58Because they haven't got enough.
01:59The American herd now is about at 48% to 49% of what it should normally be.
02:05They've lost millions of cattle within droughts and so forth and weather conditions.
02:12So they are hungry for our beef and our beef is the best beef in the world, without doubt.
02:18Despite Tasmania's reliance on the US as an export market, it seems farmers are fairly
02:24relieved that their tariffs are not as bad as it could have been and frankly they have
02:28bigger fish to fry at the moment.