Tariffs and Free Trade Ideology Affects on the Cattle Industry

Tariffs and Free Trade Ideology Affects on the Cattle Industry

Lorrie Boyer
Lorrie Boyer
Reporter
On Friday, we heard from R-CALF United Stock Growers of America’s Bill Bullard, on his concerns about opening the US border back up to South American cattle imports due to the finding of New World Screw Worm in that country. Today, Bullard comments on questions that are mounting about the future of tariffs and their potential impact. He says, under the free trade ideology, American producers have been subjected to, the industry has shrunk at an alarming rate.

“The reason we're losing these one of the primary reasons, is because of our growing dependency on import. And we are importing more than we export. And in fact, if we look at our trade with Canada and Mexico, we import about three times the volume of beef and beef products from Canada and Mexico, then we import to those two countries. The effect of this is to reduce demand for domestic cattle and to eliminate opportunities for our domestic industry to grow.”

Bullard urges the need to rebalance trade by imposing tariffs on countries that consistently maintain a trade surplus.

“The best way to reverse this is to impose tariffs on imported products so as to level the playing field between our domestic producers and this cheaper imported product. The tariffs would have the effect of elevating the cheaper product value and so our domestic producers can then compete on a level playing field.”

Bill Bullard with RCALF, USA.

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