Australian farmers have warned that any move by the Trump administration towards greater protectionism would have negative impacts on Australia’s booming rural and food exports.
The US is the second mostimportant market for Australia’s $46 billion agrifood export trade, taking 11 per cent of total exports valued at $4.6bn in 2015-16.
Beef exports valued at nearly $2.5bn dominated Australian-US agricultural trade last year, with America being the biggest international buyer of Australian beef, lamb ($601 million), wine ($490m) and goat meat ($155m).
But other commodities are rapidly gaining market access, according to National Farmers Federation president Brent Finlay, with wheat, dairy and rice products set to grab a larger slice of the premium US market under the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
Mr Finlay said that after Mr Trump’s election, chances of the 12-nation TPP agreement being ratified looked “very slim”. “It does concern us, because the TPP was good for Australian exports, particularly beef, dairy, grains and rice — and not just into the US but other countries as well,” Mr Finlay said.
“Any trade disruption or move towards protectionism by the United States will harm Australian exports and farmers; trade liberalisation not only gives agriculture a brighter future but it is how we build our economy, create jobs, and lift our national standard of living.”
Far north Queensland canegrower Steve Calgano shares Mr Finlay’s concerns about the implications of the end of the TPP in the wake of Mr Trump’s victory. Under the agreement, Australian sugar was finally given “a foot in the door” to the high-priced US market that it had been trying to gain for years, with access increasing from 85,000 tonnes of sugar annually to 150,000 tonnes, and the promise of more sales to come.
Harvesting some of his 430ha of towering cane crop yesterday in the shadow of Mount Bellenden Ker, 60km south of Cairns, Mr Calgano said that with 80 per cent of Australia’s $3bn sugar crop exported, chaos or confusion in world trading markets was not desirable.
“It’s probably a bit early to start worrying, but if (the US) does become more protectionist and put up trade barriers and tariffs, then that would be of concern to (the sugar) industry because in the end it will make us less competitive,” he said. “The TPP wasn’t a major benefit for us, but tearing it up now would be a backward step; it’s not just the damage done in US market access but the ripple effect that would cause on export markets right around the world.”
Canegrowers Association chief Dan Galligan urged the US not to waver and to ratify the TPP as a matter of urgency, in its own selfinterest as well as for countries such as Australia.
“While the gains for our sugar into the US market are initially small, Australia stands ready and able to supply more of the highquality sugar that US refiners prefer to help meet the country’s 4.5 million tonnes predicted deficit over the next decade,” he said.
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