WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he will ease tariffs on up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef imported into the United States for the next 90 days in a bid to reduce the prices Americans are paying for the grocery staple ahead of the November midterm election.
Trump, in an Aug. 21 post on Truth Social, said he reached a deal for foreign ground beef exporters to sell their product at a 25% discount in exchange for not paying U.S. out-of-quota tariffs on foreign beef. The president is expected to sign an executive order within the next two weeks formalizing the move, a White House official said.
“This deal will reduce prices for Americans while giving space for our Great American Beef Herd to grow again,” Trump said.
Why Beef Prices Are Rising
The price of beef and veal was up 9.4% in the United States in July over the previous year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as year-over-year inflation eased slightly from June. Stubborn inflation poses a major challenge politically for Trump and Republicans in the midterm election as they look to maintain control of Congress.
Trump’s move comes as imported beef into the United States has increased dramatically — up 122% in five years, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation — as the supply of domestic cattle remains at multi-decade lows following years of drought, the spread of the parasitic New World screwworm near the Mexican border and other factors.
How the Tariff Quota Works
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association criticized Trump’s action. “While America’s cattle producers share the goal of keeping groceries affordable for consumers, flooding the market with government-subsidized, below-market beef is not the way to rebuild the American cattle herd,” the group said in a statement.
Under the tariff-quota system, varying amounts of imported beef from each country can be imported into the United States at substantially lower tariffs before higher out-of-quota tariffs apply. A May report from the American Farm Bureau Federation said U.S. beef imports entering under quota “generally face a tariff of just 4.4 cents per kilogram, while imports above quota face a 26.4% tariff.”
A White House official, who discussed the move on the condition of anonymity, said Trump’s deal on ground beef is intended to be a short-term action to fill a gap to meet consumer demand. The Trump administration will simultaneously work with ranchers to expand domestic beef production for the long term, the official said.
Ranchers Question the Plan
But Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Montana, a Trump ally from one of the nation’s largest cattle states, said he urged the president not to take the action, saying it will “further harm” ranchers, “most of whom are MAGA Republicans.”
“The President’s heart is in the right place on wanting lower prices for the American people, and beef prices have been impacted by the Mexican screwworm,” Sheehy wrote in a post on X. “But the reality is this action will make it more difficult for American ranchers to rebuild our herd and bring prices down for the American people.”
Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Nebraska, another state where ranching is central to its economy, said she’s “extremely disappointed” by Trump’s decision.
“We all want lower grocery prices, but as I’ve said for months, we cannot do it at the expense of American producers. Flooding the market with foreign beef hurts our livestock industry and undermines the long-term solution: growing the U.S. cattle herd to meet demand,” Fischer said.
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