For Immediate Release
Contact: R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard
Phone: 406-252-2516; r-calfusa@r-calfusa.com
BILLINGS, Mont., March 2, 2026 — In late January, Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., introduced H.R.7276 in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation imposes a 30% tariff on sheep and lamb products from Australia or New Zealand. Reps. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah and Burgess Owens, R-Utah, are cosponsors of the legislation.
In 2023, America’s sheep producers, who control approximately 22% of the West’s sheep inventories, initiated the Protect American Lamb project under the auspices of the R-CALF USA Sheep Committee. The project submitted a petition to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) seeking an investigation to determine if imported lamb and mutton are a substantial cause of serious injury to the U.S. sheep industry. The petition claims lower-cost imports, mostly from Australia and New Zealand, have captured 74% of the domestic lamb and mutton market and have decimated the commercial sheep industry in the United States.
Later that year, to ensure the long-term stability and sustainability of America’s important domestic sheep industry, 14 members of Congress sent a bipartisan letter to the USTR stating that America’s decreased lamb production in the face of increased lamb consumption, combined with a dramatic increase in U.S. market share held by imports and a 31% surge in the volume of imports from 2018 to 2022, warranted a careful, probing analysis of the role imported lamb was playing in the alarming contraction of the U.S. sheep industry.
The U.S. sheep industry lost more than 63% of its full-time sheep ranchers and more than 60% of its sheep inventory during the past few decades, bringing the size of the U.S. sheep flock to a historical low. The latest U.S. census shows that over 12,000 sheep ranchers and nearly 287,000 sheep were purged from the domestic industry just from 2017 to 2022.
The legislation introduced by Amodei and cosponsored by Maloy and Owens is intended to reverse the alarming contraction of the domestic sheep industry by offsetting the artificial economic advantages that Australian and New Zealand sheep producers gain in the U.S. market due to their weaker currencies and lower production costs associated with weaker production standards, such as their more liberal use of chemical-based predator controls that are restricted in the United States.
“Representatives Amodei, Maloy and Owens are standing up for America’s sheep producers with their legislation that levels the playing field, which has long been tipped in favor of imports. Our domestic sheep industry is incredibly important to the economic viability of rural communities, throughout the West in particular, and without the tariffs included in this bill the West will continue hollowing out and America’s food security will remain at risk,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard.
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Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) is the largest producer-only lobbying and trade association representing U.S. cattle and sheep producers. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle and sheep industries. Visit www.r-calfusa.com or call 406-252-2516 for more information.