There’s been a lot of back and forth about beef this week between the Trump administration and the U.S. beef cattle industry after President Trump suggested importing beef from Argentina to address high prices. “We would buy some beef from Argentina. If we do that, that will bring our beef prices down,” Trump said to reporters on Sunday.
“The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and its members cannot stand behind the President while he undercuts the future of family farmers and ranchers by importing Argentinian beef in an attempt to influence prices,” said NCBA CEO Colin Woodall. “If President Trump is truly an ally of America’s cattle producers, we call on him to abandon this effort to manipulate markets and focus instead on the promised New World Screwworm facilities in Texas; making additional investments that protect the domestic cattle herd from foreign animal diseases such as FMD; and addressing regulatory burdens, such as delisting of the gray wolf and addressing the scourge of black vultures.”
In response, the Trump administration released a plan to strengthen the American beef industry. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler announced a suite of actions, including increased grazing access, cutting inspection costs, and growing markets.
“USDA will immediately expedite deregulatory reforms, boost processing capacity, including getting more locally raised beef into schools, and working across the government to fix longstanding common-sense barriers for ranchers like outdated grazing restrictions,” said Rollins.
The plan also includes enforcement of the voluntary ‘Product of USA’ rule that goes into effect next year ensuring that only products that have been born, raised, and slaughtered in the United States will be eligible to make U.S.-origin labeling claims.
The plan was released in the wake of remarks President Trump made on Truth Social Wednesday. “The Cattle Ranchers, who I love, don’t understand that the only reason they are doing so well, for the first time in decades, is because I put Tariffs on cattle coming into the United States, including a 50% Tariff on Brazil… If it weren’t for me, they would be doing just as they’ve done for the past 20 years — Terrible! It would be nice if they would understand that, but they also have to get their prices down, because the consumer is a very big factor in my thinking, also!”
In a Fox Business interview on Thursday, Rollins discussed the plan, stressed President Trump’s love and respect for farmers and ranchers, and downplayed the significance of the Argentina beef deal, which expands Argentina’s low-tariff beef import quota to 80,000 metric tons annually from the previous limit of 20,000 metric tons.
“Currently, Americans consume 12 million metric tons of beef, 10 million we produce in this country, 2 million we import,” said Rollins. “The Argentinian piece is only about currently 20,000 under a tariff quota… out of 12 million, that would be 20,000 every quarter. This is not a massive influx in the millions of tons, I think, that some have thought of beef from Argentina.”
Listen to Rollins’ comments on Fox here:
Rollins remarks on Fox Business 10/23/25 4:12