Facing pressure to do something about the high prices of basic goods affecting millions of American consumers, President Trump said Friday that he would allow more ground beef to be imported without triggering a punitive tariff.
In a post on his social media platform, Trump said he would suspend the “out of quota tariff” on 300,000 metric tons of ground beef entering the United States over the next 90 days, allowing the product to enter the country without activating a higher tariff that kicks in when specific, predefined levels are exceeded.
In addition, Trump said that he has a commitment from suppliers that the beef will be sold at 25% below current market price. The current average price of ground beef is $6.89 per pound, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Trump provided no details on how the plan will work, but we will likely learn more when he signs an executive order on the matter, which White House officials say will occur within the next two weeks.
Trump did say that the tariff suspension was intended to give U.S. ranchers time to rebuild their herds. Domestic ranchers, though, typically oppose higher beef imports, arguing that the competition lowers their profits and reduces their motivation to grow their herds.
Sen. Tim Sheehy, a Montana Republican allied with the ranching industry, said he has advised Trump not to allow more imports. “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 said on social media. “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. And most importantly, this will harm our ranching families who feed the nation.”
Bill Bullard, the CEO of R-CALF USA, which represents independent cattle producers, offered a similar view. “Imports have been a major contributor to the decline in the U.S. cattle inventory,” he said, per the Associated Press. “Using more imports today will exacerbate that decline, and will prevent herd expansion.”
Trump defended his move Friday afternoon, saying it would bring prices down “a little bit.”
“The ranchers are great; they’re my people. I love the ranchers. They’ve done a fantastic job,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington. “But they admit that we need a little help, and in order to get the prices down, so that’s what we’re doing.”
A tacit admission? Trump and his advisers continue to insist that tariffs do not raise prices for U.S. consumers and instead are paid entirely by exporters. The vast majority of economists reject this view, arguing instead that, as a general rule, tariffs are paid by U.S. importers, who then pass some portion of the cost onto consumers — a position that has the advantage of being backed up by numerous empirical studies.
University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers is one of the many experts who see tariffs as a tax paid by Americans through diminished profits and higher prices on goods. Writing on social media Friday, Wolfers noted that Trump is attempting to lower prices by cutting tariffs. He asked whether there might be a lesson in that. “I'm wondering if he could generalize from this one product to other products, and perhaps concede that tariffs raise prices on American consumers,” he asked.
Joey Politano, an independent economic analyst who has written on the subject, noted that there is something of a pattern at work. “[E]very 6 months the Trump administration realizes lowering tariffs will lower prices, applies this insight to one specific good, and then proceeds to never introspect beyond that,” he wrote in a post on X. “It’s honestly beautiful in its stupidity.”