UNITED States president Donald Trump has adjusted his much-anticipated tariff schedule, with tariffs on Australian beef set to stay on 10pc while one of Australia’s biggest competitors is looking at 50pc.
President Trump earlier in the week signalled he may be lifting the base tariff rate (which Australia is on) from 10pc to somewhere between 15-20pc.
The “liberation day” tariff schedule was announced earlier this year when the President fronted the media and a crowd packed with US factory workers holding a placard with a big list of countries on it and the tariff rates they were facing.
Today is the deadline for most of those tariffs and there has been much anticipation about what it will mean for the global trading environment, with the US also seeking access to some of Australia’s key beef exporting markets.
Brazil targeted with 50pc tariffs
One of the big announcements today was President Trump putting an additional 40pc tariff on its already 10pc tariffs – meaning it is facing a 50pc tariff in seven days.
The Brazilian Meat Packers Association is estimating that the country could lose US$1.3 billion worth of beef and livestock product sales to the United States in the second half of 2025 with the 50pc tariff.
With trade reasonably balanced between the US and Brazil, President Trump had originally given the country the base tariff of 10pc.
However, US media outlet The Beef Site says exports from Brazil to the US have plummeted since in April with the country scrambling.
“Shipments tumbled from 47,800 tons in April — when a 10pc tariff took effect — to just 9,700 tons so far in July. The looming 50pc surcharge, scheduled for Aug. 1, is already reshaping trade flows and forcing exporters to reroute containers to beat the deadline.”
President Trump wrote in an executive order that recent policies of Brazil threaten “national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States”.
He specifically referred to charges laid against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro who is facing jail time for accusations stemming from an election in 2022.
The American Meat Export Federation said it was expecting the decision to significantly reshape the beef trade in the Americas.
“Higher tariff will likely result in larger shipments of Brazilian beef to other markets, including Mexico and Canada, with Mexico and Brazil already in the process of enhancing trade relations. Mexico is already Brazil’s fourth largest beef export market, and Brazil is likely to surpass the U.S. as the largest supplier of beef cuts to Mexico this year.”
Trump working with other countries
The President has been signing trade deals with other countries in recent weeks as the deadline has been closing – including the European Union and Indonesiad.
“Some trading partners have agreed to, or are on the verge of agreeing to, meaningful trade and security commitments with the United States, thus signalling their sincere intentions to permanently remedy the trade barriers that have contributed to the national emergency,” he said in the recent executive order.
“Other trading partners, despite having engaged in negotiations, have offered terms that, in my judgment, do not sufficiently address imbalances in our trading relationship or have failed to align sufficiently with the United States on economic and national-security matters. There are also some trading partners that have failed to engage in negotiations with the United States or to take adequate steps to align sufficiently with the United States on economic and national security matters.”