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Trump Team Pauses Effort to Lower Tariffs on Beef Imports
Beef Prices Surged to All-Time Highs in April
The Trump administration has delayed a plan to suspend tariffs on beef imports, which had been part of its latest push to assuage Americans’ concerns about high consumer prices.
President Donald Trump was expected to sign a pair of executive actions on May 11 intended to reduce the cost of beef, Bloomberg previously reported. But the administration is now fine-tuning potential directives aimed at alleviating temporary shortages in the domestic beef market, a White House official said.
The pause, which was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal, underscores the challenges Trump faces in trying to lower prices of groceries and gas — two staples that have helped drive up the cost of living for voters months before the November midterm elections.
Allowing in more foreign beef could help increase supplies and bring down prices. But U.S. ranchers and beef producers oppose increasing imports, worried that it would undercut their businesses. The cattle industry is influential in several rural and Republican-run states, where the party needs to perform well in order to fend off Democrats’ push to retake control of Congress.
The American Farm Bureau Federation on May 12 criticized the idea of increasing beef imports, saying it would create a reliance on foreign producers while failing to address the issues confronting U.S. ranchers.
“Ranchers are finally starting to recover from years of losses,” AFBF President Zippy Duvall said in a statement. “Any plans to increase beef imports are extremely worrisome and could undermine the fragile recovery ranchers are experiencing.”
It’s no secret that America's farmers are suffering. The bright spot in farm country has been the cattle business. Any plans to increase beef imports are extremely worrisome and could undermine the fragile recovery ranchers are finally experiencing after years of losses. https://t.co/XEOWms8r7h — Zippy Duvall (@ZippyDuvall) May 12, 2026
The impasse is leaving American families in the lurch. U.S. consumer beef prices surged to all-time highs in April, underscoring the urgency for Trump to tackle food inflation. Average ground beef prices last month broke the $7 per pound threshold, while steak surged past $13 a pound, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on May 12.
Trump’s actions had been intended to address short-term supply issues in the U.S. beef market by expanding imports and by supporting a rebuilding of the country’s domestic cattle herd.
The administration also had planned to direct the Small Business Administration to increase loans for U.S. ranchers, while diminishing some laws addressing protections for endangered wolves and ear tag requirements, the Journal reported. Last fall, USDA announced a plan meant to loosen regulations, including on grazing access, to boost supplies.
The U.S. cattle herd has fallen to a 75-year low, boosting consumer prices to record highs while tightening margins for meat processors. The cost of beef has been a key driver of food inflation.
The U.S. is already poised to import a record amount of beef this year, according to the USDA. Trump has made efforts to increase the amount other countries, such as Argentina, are able to ship, and other major global beef exporters like Brazil and Australia could potentially benefit from the prospective executive orders.
But the effort in Argentina drew pushback from House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith and 13 other GOP lawmakers, who wrote a letter to U,S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins last October expressing concern over an effort to expand imports of Argentine beef into the U.S.
