The Administration Is Obsessed With The Beef Industry

Over the past several weeks, President Trump has made numerous announcements regarding beef, some well received by ranchers, others not so much. Beef industry lobbyist and consultant Chandler Keys says that in his time working in public policy in Washington, D.C., he has never seen a president and his senior advisors so focused on the beef industry.

“I guess the closest that would have come would have been during BSE when George W. Bush was involved in trying to get the markets back open, and he was very involved, but that was on a trajectory that everybody wanted get back in our export markets during the BSE crisis," Keys said. "Certainly, a lot of involvement there, but this is sort of unprecedented in my years.”

Beef Is Already Entering The U.S.

One of the biggest announcements came when President Trump said the United States would allow up to 300,000 metric tons of lean beef to enter the country under an expanded tariff-rate quota, with the administration seeking to have the imported beef sold at a 25% discount to market prices. Keys pointed out that beef was already entering the country.

“We've set up a all-others quota, and then we've also given some countries some quota over the years, and they can bring that in tariff-free," he said. "And then after you trigger it, gets to 26.5% tariff, and ration its way up here. And if the market is demanding it, which it is demanding it, the pipeline was full. It was coming in, and they were paying the tariff.”

Consumers Still Want Beef

While beef prices have climbed sharply, Keys said consumers have continued to purchase beef despite having other protein choices available.

“Because we've done such a good job over the last 40 years really improving the quality of our beef, the consumer was still buying beef, and it confused the chicken industry so much they thought people would walk away from beef, so they increased their poultry, and now we're oversupplied with poultry because of the misjudgment on the industry of just what the consumer wanted, which is high-quality beef,” Key said.

The most recent announcement, Keys added, was that the administration has directed USDA to reduce barriers to ranchers processing and selling their own meat and to support small and regional processors.

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