The Australian Labor government has set aside $6.8 million (US$4.3 million) in the 2025-26 budget to help the agriculture sector maintain its export markets.
This comes amid growing fears that the Trump administration could extend its tariffs to Australian agriculture products.
According to the newly released regional ministerial budget statement, the $6.8 million funding will be invested in the government’s work to enable and protect international market access for agricultural goods.
In addition, it will be spent on activities to represent Australia’s agricultural interests as well as expenses related to Australia’s participation in multilateral standard-setting bodies to promote free and fair trade standards.
“These functions support the stability of Australia’s international agricultural trade position in a more uncertain geopolitical and international trading environment.”
The government also noted that the investment will provide job security for regional and remote communities that rely on agriculture.
In addition, the government will spend $23.8 million on regional trade events to promote innovation and investment in the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors, and $3.5 million to develop a new National Food Security Strategy.
Trump Tariff Fear
On March 3, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that his government would impose tariffs on “external” agricultural products from April 2 to protect the interest of U.S. farmers.However, the president did not provide details on the tariff amount, or what products would be impacted by the tariffs.
It is also unclear if the agriculture tariffs would be included in the reciprocal tariffs on U.S. trading partners.
This has stoked fears among observers that Australia’s agriculture sector could be the latest sector to be affected by U.S. tariffs after the steel and aluminium industries, which were hit with a 25 percent tariff.
Trade Minister Don Farrell said while the United States was not the largest export market for Australian beef, a tariff would have a significant negative impact on the local industry.
However, he noted that a beef tariff would cause the price of McDonald’s burgers in the United States to increase.
“The significance, of course to the United States about our beef exports is that most of it goes into McDonald’s hamburgers,” Farrell told Sky News.
“And if you push up the price of those beef exports by 25 percent or 10 percent or whatever the figure is, then you simply push up the price of hamburgers in the United States.
“It doesn’t make any sense at all.”
Trade Minister Tells People Not to Overreact
Amid growing fears, the trade minister advised people not to overreact to “everything that comes out from the United States.”“We’ve had a very long-standing and good relationship with the United States,” he told ABC News.
“Sure, things have started to change in the last few weeks and the last few months. But the goodwill that we have towards the Americans and that they have towards us is still on display.”
Farrell further stated that he had recently had a good discussion with his U.S. counterpart, during which he explained how important Australia was to the American economy.
“We roughly have $100 billion worth of trade. We buy $70 billion worth of product off them and we sell them $30 billion worth of product,” he said.
“So, we say to them, look, why would you impose a tariff on a country where you have a trade surplus?”
Farrell also added that the government would continue to engage with the highest levels of the Trump administration and try to understand what they want out of the trade relationship.
