Unhappy Meal

Foreign Trade Minister Warns Tariffs Could Raise Price of Big Mac

Most of Australia’s beef sent to the United States goes to McDonald’s, the Australian regulator said.

Price hikes may start to hit American consumers where it hurts: McDonald’s. Australia’s trade minister, Don Farrell, issued a stark warning to fast-food lovers as President Donald Trump’s trade war heats up. Farrell claimed that most of Australia’s beef sent to the U.S. goes to McDonald’s and that new tariffs would raise the price of the staple. “The significance, of course, to the U.S. about our beef exports is that most of it goes into McDonald’s hamburgers,” he said. “If you push up the price of those beef exports by 25 percent or 10 percent, or whatever the figure is, then you simply push up the price of hamburgers in the United States. It doesn’t make sense.” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed a similar sentiment this weekend. “[Tariffs] are not a tax on the producer,” he said. “They’re a tax on Americans, which is why we have seen the markets respond in the way that they have, in a very negative way.” America is Australia’s main international market for beef, alongside lamb and goat. “I wish I could tell you exactly what the American government is finally going to do,” Farrell told Sky News on Sunday. “To be honest with you, I suspect they don’t even know themselves.”