President Donald Trump appears to have caught a case of the meat sweats ahead of the midterm elections. He announced on Friday that for the next three months, the United States will suspend tariffs on 300,000 metric tons of ground beef imports, adding that the meat will be sold at 25 percent below current market prices.
The move is a tacit admission from the Trump administration that tariffs raise prices. Indeed, that is their purpose. Under current policy, importers pay a 26.4 percent tax on beef once they exceed a country-specific quota. If Friday’s announcement materializes into real policy, it could provide relief to Americans who are paying nearly double the amount they paid a decade ago for ground beef.
Liberalizing trade is a better way to slow price increases than punishing meat-packers. Last fall, the Trump administration launched an investigation into the country’s four biggest meat-packers, alleging anticompetitive practices. But meatpacking companies run on notoriously slim margins. Last week, Tyson Foods announced plans to sell a facility in Washington and to close two in Illinois and Utah.
This isn’t beef importers’ first tariff reprieve. In February, the president exempted beef in his announcement of a temporary global 10 percent tariff and expanded Argentina’s import quota by 80,000 metric tons. Before Trump posted his latest plan, the Agriculture Department was already projecting record imports this year.
The president sold tariffs as a way to bring jobs to the U.S. But voters are reeling from inflation, and Trump’s border taxes make it hard for him to avoid blame when prices rise. Hence his repeated attempts to peel back tariffs on key products for political reasons.
Trump’s announcement is already meeting opposition from U.S. ranchers and their political allies, who claim tariffs are needed to help the industry rebuild diminished U.S. cattle herds. Disease and drought have made it difficult to expand production.
But American cattle producers also need to be able to compete in a global market. Demand remains resilient, and U.S. ranchers continue to reap high prices. The specter of $20 burritos already created a hubbub on the right in recent weeks. Imagine the political apocalypse from rumors of $20 burgers.
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