China’s Ministry of Commerce has taken steps to protect its cattle industry, imposing an additional 55% tariff on beef imports that exceed quota levels from key trading partners, including Australia, Brazil and the US.
The “safeguard measure” took effect on 1 January 2026 and will be implemented as country-specific tariff rate quotas, the ministry said.
“The measures will be in effect for a period of three years and will be progressively relaxed at fixed intervals during the implementation period,” state news agency Xinhua quoted a ministry spokesman as saying.
“The purpose of imposing safeguard measures on imported beef is to help the domestic industry weather its current difficulties, rather than to restrict normal trade,” the spokesman added.
Under World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements, safeguard measures can be used as trade defence instruments to deal with import surges.
The ministry said the total import quota for 2026 had been set at 2.7mn metric tonnes for countries covered under the new measure, Reuters reported.
The new quota levels are lower than import levels for the first 11 months of 2025 for Brazil, China’s biggest beef supplier, and Australia, Reuters added.
According to Reuters data, in 2024, China imported 1.34mn tonnes of beef from Brazil, 594,567 tonnes from Argentina and 243,662 tonnes from Uruguay. It also imported 216,050 tonnes from Australia, 150,514 tonnes from New Zealand and 138,112 tonnes from the US.
China launched an inquiry in 2024 to investigate reports of a sharp increase in the volume of imported beef, which surged by 73.2% between 2019 and 2024, the commerce ministry said.
“Imported beef, which initially served as a market supplement, has surged in recent years and greatly eroded the domestic industry’s market share, leading to a sharp decline in domestic prices and widespread losses across the sector,” said Sha Yusheng, secretary general of the China Animal Agriculture Association.
Meanwhile, the Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC), an industry trade body, said it was disappointed by China’s decision to curb beef imports.
“These new restrictions have the potential to reduce Australian beef exports to China by about one-third compared to the last 12 months – trade worth over A$1bn,” Tim Ryan, chief executive of the AMIC, said in a statement.
“This decision appears to reward other countries who have surged the volume of beef exported to the Chinese market in recent years,” Ryan added.
Brazil’s foreign ministry said the country’s initial annual quota of beef imports had been cut to 1.1mn tonnes.
“The Brazilian government has acted in a coordinated way with the private sector and will continue to act with the Chinese government both bilaterally and within the WTO, with a view of mitigating the impact of the measure and defending the legitimate interests of workers and producers in this sector,” the ministry said in a statement.