The Trump administration is reportedly looking to boost both beef imports and domestic beef production in a bid to lower the sky-high beef prices American consumers face at the supermarket.
With beef prices hovering near record highs, the White House is preparing to temporarily reduce beef tariffs, increase loan access for U.S. ranchers, and roll back environmental laws that impact the beef industry, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The administration is looking to suspend annual tariff-rate quotas, which impose a higher tariff rate once certain import levels are reached, while steering more Small Business Administration support to ranchers to help them access capital to expand their operations. Other planned changes reportedly include slashing protections for gray and Mexican wolves under the Endangered Species Act and reducing regulatory requirements such as electronic ear tags for cows.
The Independent has contacted the White House, Department of Agriculture, and Small Business Administration for comment.
The moves could alienate the president’s supporters in the agriculture community, traditionally a strong base group for the Republican, and cattle experts warned the steps might not do much to lower prices.
Increased beef imports would discourage Americans from growing their herds, while collapsing prices could cause some producers to simply leave the industry, Bill Bullard, CEO of cattle producers’ group R-CALF USA, told Reuters.
“We’ve had record imports for the past three years and at the same time consumers continue to pay record prices for beef,” he said.
Prices for other supermarket staples like eggs and milk have eased since Trump took office, but beef continues to soar, thanks to a variety of factors.
A combination of drought, falling livestock prices during the Covid pandemic, and pests in foreign markets encouraged U.S. ranchers to shrink their herds, then strong demand for beef helped send the price for the remaining cattle back up.
The price of beef has surged nearly 48 percent in the last five years, per the Federal Reserve, and the U.S. is on track to import a record 5.8 billion pounds of beef this year, according to the Department of Agriculture.
President Trump has made tackling inflation, which dogged his predecessors in the Biden administration, a key priority, running on the promise that his business bona fides would help him get rising prices in check.
On beef at least, the president has struggled, and he’s taken multiple steps to ease the price spike, including investigating foreign meat packers for price fixing and allowing more beef imports from Argentina.
