The federal government’s decision to lift long-standing restrictions and allow North American beef – including cattle born in the US, Canada and Mexico - into Australia has raised some eyebrows across the country.
The change, announced in July, means such imports will be allowed for the first time in more than two decades.
The Nationals have accused the government of softening the laws to appease the United States. Beef is one of President Donald Trump's biggest trade grievances with Australia.
Australia exported a record volume of red meat in 2024, including 1.34 million tonnes of beef, according to Meat & Livestock Australia.
Industry group Cattle Australia has warned the move could pose biosecurity risks, particularly around traceability, but the federal government has insisted the decision is backed by science and will not threaten Australia’s disease-free status.
But what do regional farmers think?
In Victoria’s East, seventh-generation Gippsland beef farmer and owner of Bowman Performance Genetics, Glenn Bowman, is concerned about biosecurity risks, saying it would be “catastrophic” if foot and mouth disease entered Australia via North America.
“It seems strange that they put us through all the hoops of having the strongest biosecurity and lifetime traceable cattle supply chain, and yet they can open it up to countries that don't have those same measures,” Bowman told the Gippsland Monitor.
He said Australian cattle standards are something “we pride ourselves on as a nation - the clean, green image, free of most diseases … why take that risk on such a small import?”
Bowman said he was confused by the government’s decision and considered it “a bit of a knee jerk reaction”.
For now, the changes aren’t expected to rattle the local market.
Mortlake’s Western Victoria Regional Livestock Exchange (WVLX) manager, Jake Last, told the West Vic Brolga there had been “probably a little bit of reaction” from local farmers and buyers since the announcement, but he did not expect major market disruption in the short term.
“We’re still exporting so much beef into the US because of their all-time low beef numbers in America, with all the drought that’s going on over there at the moment,” he said.
“I don’t see it being a major contributing factor to our local market right at the present time – while we are exporting so much beef – because they don’t have it and the demand is so high.”
Still, Last did say he also had concerns about biosecurity.
“That’s going to be our biggest concern, when you see the reports in the papers, the fact that there’s a lot of Mexican cattle that moves across into the US,” Last said.
“Depending on how good their traceability is, that’s obviously a big contributing factor to our biosecurity here in Australia.”
Last mentioned the newly opened trade agreement could help the industry in other ways, like decreasing the likelihood of the US putting extra tariffs on beef going into North America.