“We feel like he’s sold us out to a foreign competitor, that he’s left us behind.”
It all started when the US president announced in mid-October that his administration had reached an agreement to lower the price of beef for consumers.
“We’re working on beef, and I think we have a deal that will lower the price,” Trump declared, without providing further details.
A few days later, he addressed the issue again on Air Force One.
“We would buy beef from Argentina,” he said. “If we do that, we’ll bring down beef prices.”
These statements sparked a wave of reactions among American ranchers, a group that has traditionally voted Republican and includes many fervent supporters of the president.
What is being discussed, according to the US press citing White House sources, is the idea of quadrupling the tariff quota for Argentine beef from 20,000 to 80,000 metric tons.
Amid the controversy, US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins stated in a television interview that the president “is in talks with Argentina,” but warned that the increase in imports from the South American country “will not be much.”
After harsh criticism from cattle ranchers’ associations, the White House announced a package of support measures for the sector last week, which partially calmed the anger of local producers.
The conflict comes amid another controversial measure taken by the US government: Trump’s financial bailout in October of the government of his Argentine counterpart, Javier Milei, which is based primarily on a $20 billion currency swap.
Critics argue that the Trump administration should be helping American farmers and ranchers instead of providing financial assistance to the South American country. The slogan was supposed to be “America First,” they claim, but in practice, the entry of foreign competitors runs counter to that aspiration.
“It’s a contradiction,” declared a disappointed Bill Bullard, president of the cattle ranchers’ organization R-CALF, who had hoped the administration’s policies would discourage meat imports.
