United States ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich will meet Agriculture Minister Tony Burke today to raise concerns about the government's decision to extend a ban on beef imports for two years.
The Australian Financial Review reports the US had lobbied for the ban to be lifted, and the Australian government's decision to reinstate it has created tensions in the relationship two weeks before President Barack Obama is due to visit Canberra.
"It's definitely a change from what we were hearing as recently as just last week," Agricultural counsellor at the US embassy in Canberra Grant Pettrie said.
"US beef is safe to trade. We don't have BSE [bovine spongiform encephalopathy]. We only had three cases and haven't had a case in four years. We go out and test for it all the time – probably more than Australia does."
As to whether the US viewed the import risk analysis, which will take two years, as a barrier to trade, Mr Pettrie replied: "Well, the product can't come in, can it?" He said the US would probably only sell an annual $US15 million ($16.5 million) of beef to Australia, but it was important on principle that the ban be lifted.
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