# Australian meat could be next on the menu for Trump’s ‘bonkers’ tariffs

Farmers sweat as they await word on whether Donald Trump will extend tariffs to $6.2bn in meat exports

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Patrick Commins

#### Thu 13 Mar 2025 10.00 EDT
Last modified on Thu 13 Mar 2025 16.13 EDT

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‘I hate to predict things’: Trump downplays US recession fears amid trade tariffs – video

The Australian National University honorary professor and non-resident fellow at the Lowy institute, Jenny Gordon, described Donald Trump’s tariffs as “bonkers”, but agreed retaliation would only hurt Australians more.

“But his policy solutions are bonkers because they won’t work. They’re internally inconsistent. So on one hand, he says we’re going to have all these tariffs to make all this tariff revenue to be able to cut taxes – noting that the tax cuts are for the rich. At the same time, he says we’re going to onshore everything. So America will produce everything at home. Either have lots of tariff revenue, or you’re producing everything at home – you don’t get both.”

“Then the other problem is, even if you are producing everything at home – and the US conceivably can do that, unlike Australia – they’ll be a lot poorer. So the US is really shooting themselves in the foot.”

The Australian writer and commentator, Adam Gifford, added that the best option would be to use the World Trade Organisation to mount a unified defence of free trade alongside other trade-reliant countries, such as South Korea, Japan and even China.

The United States is Australia’s number one international market for beef, lamb and goat meat. Australian producers sold $6.2bn in beef and meat to the US in 2024, or nearly 30% of the $39bn total in that year.

Meat is the second largest export to the US after gold, followed by $1.9bn in pharmaceutical sales (which includes products from well known companies such as CSL and Cochlear).

The Australian Business Council has warned that a further round of tariffs could have a devastating effect on Australian beef producers, arguing that the industry would lose revenue from the Australian dollar to U.S. dollars.

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