NCBA: More Beef Imports Won't Solve Price Concerns

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association is raising concerns about the Trump administration's reported plan to allow an additional 300,000 metric tons of tariff-free beef imports over the next 90 days. In a social media post, President Trump said the beef would sell at roughly 25% below market prices to help consumers, but NCBA says the proposal could create uncertainty for cattle producers without providing relief for consumers.

NCBA's Executive Director of Government Affairs, Kent Bacus, says producers are still waiting for answers about how the plan would work and where additional imported beef would come from.

“As we wait for those details and try to find out exactly how this would be implemented, we know that they're looking to lift the over quota tariff for 90 days. For most of the countries that we bring in beef from, where we have these volume based quotas, the end quota tariff is about 4.4 cents per kilo. The over quota tariff is about 26.4%. So if you look at a lot of those countries in particular, their currencies are so weak that that 26.4% tariff is, quite frankly, they've been able to absorb a lot of that. But it was some kind of deterrent to keep them from just sending everything to the U.S. market. So by taking those safeguards off for 90 days, that's really going to send a lot of negative signals to the cattle markets, something we're very concerned about. And it's not really going to move the needle that much on beef prices.”

Bacus says the United States should not be opening itself up for more beef imports. In fact, he says the administration's announcement caught many in the industry by surprise.

Source: NAFB