Australian beef is imported into Cambodia too. Does it contain hormones ?

‘Irresponsible’ Australia trade deal will bring ruin for UK farmers, critics warn
Scottish National party says tariff-free imports of hormone-treated beef ‘would represent a bitter betrayal of rural communities’
Aberdeen Angus cattle in the Scottish Borders. The SNP has warned that the proposed UK trade deal with Australia will disproportionately affect Scottish farmers.
James Tapper and Toby Helm
Sun 23 May 2021 09.45 BST

The UK government was facing a backlash on Saturday over its plans for a trade deal with Australia, which have led to anger from farmers and environmentalists and calls for the Scottish secretary to resign.

Farming unions said that proposals for a zero-tariff and zero-quota trade deal would drive farmers out of business, while green groups said allowing Australian hormone-treated beef would breach the Conservatives’ manifesto commitments.

The Scottish National party added to the clamour for a rethink by calling on Alister Jack, the secretary of state for Scotland, to “fight back or resign” if he failed to stand up for farmers.

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader in Westminster, wrote to Jack, saying the deal would “place a time limit on the future of farming livelihoods across these islands”, and would also disproportionately affect Scottish farmers and crofters.

“Such a trade deal would represent a bitter betrayal of rural communities, undermining and undercutting our agricultural sector and would amount to a genuine threat to future viability,” Blackford wrote. If Jack’s views are ignored by the cabinet, Blackford wrote, then “your only credible option is to make clear that this is a resigning matter”.

Opponents of Scottish independence fear that the row over farming may fuel support for a new referendum in rural areas where there has previously been pro-union support.

Farming leaders were taken by surprise by news that Liz Truss, the trade secretary, would offer her counterpart in Canberra a deal with a 15-year transition period leading to unfettered free trade, without protections that farmers had asked for.

Ministers are aiming to have the deal signed before the G7 summit in Cornwall on 11 June.

Minette Batters, the National Farmers’ Union president, said it was “incredibly disappointing” that the government had not told farmers about the “wholly irresponsible” proposals, and that it should provide details urgently.

“It is also incredibly concerning that the government is in a ‘sprint’ to sign up to a trade deal with Australia that would have serious implications for British farming and would seemingly offer very little benefit to the economy,” she said.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) estimates that UK GDP will grow by 0.025% over the next 15 years as a result of a deal.

Batters added: “The prime minister and his government have pledged to level up the country. Agreeing to a tariff-free trade deal with a major agricultural exporter, with no safeguards or review mechanisms, would do exactly the opposite of that commitment and set swaths of rural Britain backwards.”

Truss held talks with Dan Tehan, Australia’s minister for trade, and is thought to have outlined the UK proposal to him. She won the prime minister’s support during a cabinet meeting on Thursday after apparently outmanoeuvring the environment secretary George Eustice and Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove.

Last year, environmental groups and farmers spent months lobbying ministers and emphasising that trade deals should not compromise food standards or animal welfare. In November, Eustice and Truss made a joint pledge not to allow imports of hormone-treated beef or chlorinated chicken as part of any trade deal.

Australian farmers are allowed to use hormones to make cattle grow bigger, and as a result their meat is subject to an import ban by the EU.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... itics-warn

If the beef farmers of Scotland - who have long claimed their product as superior in every way - just like themselves - cannot compete on price and quality with farmers in Australia - with very high standards and who have to ship it to the other side of the world - then it tells you something about Scottish beef producers.

Long protected and spoiled by the largesse of the Common Agricultural Policy, with it's plethora of prohibitions to keep out imports and subsidies to protect inefficiencies and quaint traditions (French mainly), Scottish beef producers are now being exposed to the realities of having to actually make a profit on their products. Shock horror, no more cheques from the EU. I bet they are still being paid off by the UK government for a while longer.

The fact is that Scottish beef is among the very best in the world. Sadly much is exported to higher value export markets (the EU, China and the middle east) and what is left for the UK is horribly expensive. Irish beef is much cheaper as is English produced beef, and much of that is still excellent, Hereford for example. I always bought Irish beef from Smithfield's.

In supermarkets you never see "Scottish produced beef", it is always "British beef" which means English (heaven forefend being proud of that fact) or if there's no country designation, it's probably Irish. You can buy Scottish produced beef in Smithfield market in London (the London wholesale meat market) and then you see the price difference, about a 20-25% + uplift from Irish and English beef (as of 2017). There are also online butchers in Scotland, with much cheaper commercial rents and operating costs, where you can buy Scottish beef. You will get a shock too - $75+ a kilo for filet minion! (plus shipping costs )

You have to ask yourself why? Just because it tastes better it doesn't mean it should cost more. It costs more because they either want more for the better quality (fair enough, just be honest about it) or they need more money to pay for their operations. Or a bit of both. So, let the market decide if it is worth the extra, not bleat about losing subsidies and, "it's not fair".

God help them if the UK does a deal with Argentina and Brazil.

https://www.mccaskiebutcher.co.uk/product/fillet-steak/