The Trump administration wants to maintain or increase US cattle prices and reduce beef prices by making marginal changes to a few domestic policies and allowing increased Argentine access to the US beef market.
The trade initiatives would only slightly reduce prices paid by consumers for beef and prices received by cattle producers, while the administration’s domestic policy initiatives would have negligible impacts on those prices.
A proposal to increase Argentina’s access to the US beef market by quadrupling its tariff rate quota has caused much consternation across the US cattle industry, but in fact, that expansion would increase the US supply of beef (relative to 2024) by only about 0.5 percent and have de minimis effects on US beef and cattle prices.