President 
Donald Trump's plan to temporarily pause tariffs on at least 300,000 metric tons of imported ground beef has drawn pushback from Republicans and ranchers. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, in remarks reported by The Hill, said the beef import plan was still under discussion.
What has the administration said? Trump announced the plan saying he has a commitment to sell the imported beef at 25 percent below current market prices, though details have been scarce, PBS NewsHour reported. Trump says the move is aimed at providing relief to Americans struggling with higher grocery prices. Rollins called it "a very short-term fix from the president's perspective that he believed necessary to get lower cost beef onto American plates." "We want to get the beef prices down, so we will get them down a little bit," she said.
Why are ranchers objecting? Walter Schweitzer, president of the Montana Farmers Union, told PBS NewsHour that 300,000 tons would add only 2 to 3 percent to the total U.S. beef supply and that, without mandatory country-of-origin labeling, the price of burger would not change. He said multinational packers would import the beef from their plants in Mexico, Brazil and other countries, mix it in and sell it at U.S. beef prices. The chief of the U.S. Cattlemen's Association said Trump's reputation with ranchers has "taken a hit," The Hill reported.
What is driving beef prices? Asked on PBS NewsHour why ground beef prices have risen nearly 75 percent since 2021 while the U.S. cattle herd is the smallest in 75 years, Schweitzer said "first off, demand," and that the supply chain holds more beef than it did five years ago. Almost 30 percent of the total U.S. beef supply is imported, he said. Asked about Trump's escalating trade fight with Canada, he said Montana has been shipping a lot of its calves north into Canada and that adding 50 percent to the goods it tries to ship there means "we have lost that market too."
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
