Australian beef producers like billionaire Gina Rinehart should not have taken it personally when China wrecked their New Year’s Eve parties with new duties on beef imports.

Unlike the 2020 hammering of Australian exports to China – thanks to then-prime minister Scott Morrison’s crusade to find the origins of COVID – we are not to blame for this hit.

China’s quotas are the latest hit for Australian beef farmers, but cattle shortages in the US have ensured prices remain near record highs.Credit: Bloomberg

China says it is sheltering its growing domestic beef industry against overseas competitors – like Brazil, Argentina and Australia – with a 55 per cent tariff once imports hit 2.7 million tonnes this year.

It devised the magic number after a year-long investigation determined that rising imports have undermined local producers.

So in theory, all foreign suppliers are taking a hit to protect Chinese producers. In practice, it does not look like a level playing field.

China has not set a market-wide quota for all beef importers on a first-in-first-served basis. That would be chaos.

It has set quotas for individual countries based on their recent beef trade numbers.

And this is where Australia’s trouble begins.

The announcement by China’s Ministry of Commerce said top suppliers, including........

© The Sydney Morning Herald