The view is taken that institutional factors operating in the international beef market limit the usefulness of a competitive spatial equilibrium model for understanding the process of price formation in the Australian beef market. A simple theoretical model is developed to demonstrate the impact of the U.S. beef quota and Australia's meat export control scheme on Australian beef prices. It is argued that Australian beef prices are related to the weighted average of export prices rather than any "world" price. Implications for the direction and volume of Australia's beef exports are discussed.