U.S. beef is one of thousands of casualties in the trade war between the world's largest trading partners, and in Beijing many restaurants - even American steak restaurants - are switching to Australian beef instead. - REUTERS
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00:00The U.S.-China trade war means American beef, the star of the menu at this Texas-style smokehouse in Beijing, will soon be off the table.
00:10U.S. beef is an unaffordable option after Beijing's 125% retaliatory tariffs, on top of an existing 22%.
00:19Come May, diners at Home Plate BBQ will be tucking into beef ribs, brisket and sausages, still done in the style of the American South, but mostly sourced from Australia.
00:29Operations director Charles de Pellet says the switch to brisket from down under is 40% cheaper than continuing to buy American.
00:37Once we deplete our stocks at that, we'll be switching fully over to Australian M5.
00:41We're pretty happy with it. We still think it's the same taste and quality and flavor, but we've had to switch just due to market pressures and the tariffs.
00:50Stocks are low in China and the prices have doubled.
00:54Pork isn't exempt either. He says their ribs will soon come from Canada.
00:59Even before the trade war began, American beef was expensive, partly because of shortages caused by years of dry weather.
01:07Those higher prices were already hard to swallow for consumers in China's weak economy.
01:13Local university student Yan says he eats imported beef once every few months because the taste is so good.
01:20So he doesn't mind forking out the extra cost once in a while just to experience it.
01:25He also says that great flavor isn't exclusive to the US and that he's happy to try beef from anywhere.
01:33Home plate BBQ's experience is being repeated across Beijing's restaurants.
01:37That's according to a beef supplier based in the capital who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of discussing tariffs.
01:44While the $125 million worth of beef the US sends to China every month is a sliver of trade between the two sides,
01:52its disappearance in China is a glimpse of what's to come for other goods.
01:56Tian Chen Xu, a senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, says China seems to be lowering its dependence on US exporters.
02:05I think there is an additional layer which is China is intentionally hitting the US farming sector,
02:13which means that US farmers will be very difficult to find an exemption from China.
02:20So I think essentially the beef trade will be blocked and Chinese importers or US exporters need to find alternative markets.
02:32He estimates across the board 80% of US-China trade is being hit by mutual tariffs.
02:38And he says that will only deepen the decoupling between China and the US in terms of trade.