For Immediate Release
Contact: R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard
Phone: 406-252-2516; r-calfusa@r-calfusa.com
BILLINGS, Mont., May 11, 2026 — The White House today announced a 200-day suspension of certain tariff-rate quotas for beef, a move that is expected to increase imports of foreign beef into the United States at a time when the U.S. cattle herd has already declined to historically low levels.
Tariff-rate quotas are a means of limiting the quantity of foreign beef by establishing country-specific annual quantity limits and charging a higher tariff rate above those limits to discourage further imports. The purpose of the tariff rate quota system for beef is to sustain and protect domestic beef production from price-depressing import surges that can cause domestic production to contract.
The U.S. cattle industry has been contracting for decades due to both excessive imports and a monopolistic market structure. This combination of market control by the four largest beef packers, along with their access to excessive import supplies, has contributed to an exodus of domestic cattle producers, a purging of domestic cattle inventories, and an acute imbalance between domestic beef production and domestic beef consumption.
Today, as a result of the acute supply-and-demand imbalance caused by decades of failed trade policies that encouraged an overreliance on imports and a lack of antitrust enforcement that reduced marketplace competition, the price of the remaining cattle in America’s diminished cattle herd is historically high, as is the price of beef that consumers purchase for themselves and their families.
Presumably, the White House’s 200-day suspension of tariff rate quotas is intended to increase the availability of foreign beef in the U.S. retail market, thus creating an improved supply-and-demand balance that policymakers expect to bring down consumer beef prices.
The U.S. does not require country-of-origin labeling on beef. Without it, consumers cannot distinguish imported beef from domestic beef at the retail level, which means increased lower-cost imports may simply be absorbed into the marketplace without delivering the consumer price relief the White House is expecting.
R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard issued the following statement in response to the White House’s plan:
“While increasing the supply of domestic beef through additional foreign beef would be expected to lower consumer beef prices in a competitive market, the U.S. cattle and beef markets are not competitive because of the control exerted by monopolistic beef packers and monopolistic beef retailers. There is a high probability that dominant beef packers and retailers will extract supra-competitive profits from this plan unless controls are instituted to constrain their inherent market power.
“The long-term solution for rebalancing domestic beef production with domestic beef demand is to incentivize the expansion of the domestic cattle herd, which will only occur if America’s cattle farmers and ranchers have confidence that their prices will not be continually manipulated by dominant beef packers or continually undercut by excessive imports. Temporarily increasing the quantity of imported beef, which has already contributed to the contraction of the U.S. cattle herd, will likely delay expansion of the U.S. cattle herd unless the White House commits to reestablishing more meaningful tariff rate quotas two to three years from now. Producers need confidence that their expansion-related investment won’t be undercut again by cheaper imports.
“This plan is no doubt an experiment. It gives all the market control to the dominant beef packers and retailers while leaving domestic cattle producers, the rural communities that depend on them for their economic survival, and consumers none. At the very least, the White House should provide domestic cattle farmers and ranchers with the tools they need to mitigate the financial harm they will likely incur from an increase in price-depressing imports, and it should empower consumers to choose which countries’ beef they wish to consume.
“The White House should require all beef sold in America to be labeled as to its country-of-origin and it should stop requiring that domestic cattle producers pay to advertise and promote foreign beef through the government-controlled mandatory beef checkoff program.
“We wish to continue working with the White House, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Congress to achieve a more favorable balance between domestic beef production and domestic beef consumption. This is the only way to achieve America’s national security interest of becoming self-reliant in the production of beef, a vital protein source for America’s consumers.”
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Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) is the largest producer-only cattle trade association in the United States. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle and sheep industries. For more information, visit www.r-calfusa.com or call 406-252-2516.