Trump: Going to help cattle ranchers by allowing them to process their own beef.

The useful part

President Trump is trying to solve a difficult economic problem in the beef market and in the process is creating another problem (nothing new honestly). US ranchers have been slaughtering cattle faster than they are rebuilding their herds. That has pushed the cattle supply to a 75-year low and sent beef prices higher—a problem for consumers and, politically, for the Trump administration.

How it works

• The numbers show exporters absorbing the tariff rather than walking away.
• As a result, Trump authorized up to 300,000 metric tons of imported lean beef trimmings to enter the US over 90 days without the normal 26.4% above-quota tariff or ad valorem.
• The above quota tariff is added on because the US exporters (who do not have specific beef deals with the US) fill up the US quota within the first few weeks of the year.
• Do exporters still send beef to the US despite the 26.4% ad valorem tariff?
• Now the administration has said that they want that beef sold at prices 25% below the prevailing "market price".

What to take from it

My inkling is the that the "market price" is about 25% for all beef, because without the tariffs imported beef is 26.4% less in price.

Details worth keeping

Brazil filled its entire 52,000-tonne duty-free US quota within the first five to six days of 2026, then kept shipping anyway — Abiec forecasts that shipments will exceed 400,000 tonnes in 2026, meaning the additional 350,000 tonnes that Brazil expects to send to the U.S. by the end of the year will be taxed at 26.4%.