Overview
- Officials have finalized a plan to quadruple Argentina’s low‑tariff beef quota to about 80,000 metric tons, presented as short‑term price relief alongside new USDA efforts to rebuild U.S. herds.
- Republican senators confronted Vice President JD Vance in a closed‑door meeting, arguing the move abandons ranchers and will not bring down grocery prices.
- U.S. cattle futures slid by expanded daily limits at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange as traders priced in higher imports and tighter margins for producers.
- The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and other farm groups denounced the policy, and House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith said tariff‑free purchases from Argentina would be “devastating” to producers.
- Beef costs are at record levels, driven by drought, high feed and input expenses, the smallest U.S. herd in decades, and supply strains tied to Mexican cattle restrictions and earlier tariffs on Brazilian beef.