The Hill’s Mallory Wilson reported that “President Trump said Friday that tariff-free imported beef will be coming from Brazil and Argentina, among other places, as his administration works to alleviate stubbornly high prices.“
“‘It’s coming from Argentina. It’s coming from Brazil,’ Trump said at an Oval Office event surrounded by ranchers and farmers,” Wilson reported. “‘It’s coming from a couple of other places. We have our inspectors down. It’s very clean. It’s very good.'”
“Trump announced last month that the U.S. would be pausing tariffs on 300,000 metric tons of beef for 90 days to be sold at a 25 percent discount below market price. The president said it would lower costs for Americans while allowing for ranchers to build up their herds,” Wilson reported. “The announcement was quickly criticized by the cattle industry and GOP lawmakers who said that lowering prices for Americans shouldn’t come at the cost of U.S. ranchers.”
“‘We’re doing it in a very limited fashion because our ranchers can handle it, but our ranchers really needed a little bit of help, and our ranchers want the prices to be down too,’ Trump said,” according to Wilson’s reporting.
JBS’ Batista Reportedly Lobbied Trump on Beef Imports
The Wall Street Journal’s Patrick Thomas, Natalie Andrews and Brian Schwartz reported that “the Brazilian billionaire who shares control of JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, lobbied President Trump to lower tariffs on beef imports as a way to tame rising U.S. prices.“
“Joesley Batista met with Trump in the Oval Office on Aug. 20, and they discussed how additional beef supplied from Brazil could help if Trump dropped a 26% import tax, according to people familiar with the matter,” Thomas, Andrews and Schwartz reported. “It couldn’t be learned who organized the meeting between Batista and Trump. The next day, on social media, Trump announced a plan to temporarily allow more foreign beef imports into the U.S. Trump said the imported products would be sold at a 25% discount to market prices.”
“JBS has played a key role in helping shape Trump administration views, even before the recent executive order,” Thomas, Andrews and Schwartz reported. “Pilgrim’s Pride, the nation’s second-largest chicken processor, which is majority controlled by JBS, contributed $5 million to Trump’s inauguration, making it the biggest donor.”
“For JBS, importing more of its Brazilian product into the U.S. would give the meatpacker a bigger share of the American market,” Thomas, Andrews and Schwartz reported. “Brazil sent about $1.5 billion worth of beef to the U.S. through the first six months of this year, up 10% from the year prior, according to Agriculture Department data.”
Trump Signs Pro-Rancher Orders Amid Backlash to Import Plan
Politico’s Grace Yarrow reported that “President Donald Trump signed executive orders on Friday intended to boost the country’s beef producers by cracking down on major meatpackers’ dominance of the industry and seeking to implement new labeling standards.”
“Trump said during a signing ceremony at the White House that his administration will create a program to let ranchers sell their products directly to consumers and loosen the industry’s reliance on the ‘big four’ companies that control the vast majority of U.S. meat processing,” Yarrow reported. “‘People have been asking for this change for decades, and we’re getting it done,’ Trump said. ‘This is the largest-ever government effort to change all federal rules and regulations necessary to support our ranchers and our farmers.'”
“The president’s actions come in the wake of industry anger over his plan to boost beef imports in a bid to lower consumer prices ahead of midterm elections in which affordability concerns are expected to be top of mind for many voters,” Yarrow reported. “It’s not clear whether any of the steps announced Friday will assuage ranchers’ concerns or have any impact in the short term, given that most of them would require regulatory changes or congressional action.”