The president said on social media that he had committed to ensuring the imported beef would be sold at 25% below current market rates, making it cheaper for American consumers. A White House official said the deal is with foreign beef exporters who have agreed to the discount on beef, which the official said would be passed on to consumers.
The directive drew quick backlash from some conservative rural-state Republicans who raised alarms about the plan's impact on ranchers.
“I’ve advised President Trump against this course of action for a year because American ranchers have been struggling against the packer monopoly for decades, and this will further harm them — most of whom are MAGA Republicans,” Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., said in a social media post just hours after the president's announcement Friday morning.
Sheehy, a reliable ally of the president, said Trump's “heart is in the right place” but the plan would nonetheless “make it more difficult for American ranchers to rebuild our herd and bring prices down for the American people. And most importantly, this will harm our ranching families who feed the nation.”
The deal, Trump said, allows up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to be imported into the U.S. for the next 90 days without activating an “out of quota” tariff, which is a tax that goes into effect once a certain quantity of that product enters the country.
The White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a plan that has yet to be finalized, said the beef in question is lean beef trimmings that are used for ground beef production. Trump plans to sign an executive order formalizing the directive within two weeks, the official said.
When the administration made a push last year to buy more beef from Argentina, key ranching and farming groups such as The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association raised concerns about the impact on American ranchers and feedlot operators.
