UNITED States President Donald Trump on Friday announced plans to allow up to 100,000 tonnes of Argentine tariff-free beef to enter the US this year, under a temporary measure to try to fill the large gap in domestic US beef production.

Under a White House statement titled “Ensuring affordable beef for the American consumer,” President Trump announced that Argentina will this year have access for 100,000t of in-quota tariff-free beef – up from just 20,000t under the previous country-specific annual quota.

According to the official White House announcement, the measure is specific to lean beef trimmings, used for the manufacture of ground beef – widely used in the US for burgers, Mexican cuisine and other applications.

Typically, lean beef trimmings imported from Australia and elsewhere are blended in the US with fattier US beef trimmings to produce the ideal 78CL (78pc lean beef, 22pc fat) beef pattie.

Friday’s announcement has direct importance for Australia, as lean trimmings make up a core component of our annual US exports. Last year, frozen trimmings and cuts destined for the grind made up about 70pc of Australia’s total exports to the US of 450,000t.

The prospect of such a move to offer Argentina a much larger tariff free access was first flagged by the US president last October.

In the White House statement issued on Friday, Australian time, Trump describes the measure as ‘temporary’ and goes to some lengths to justify the decision based on local supply challenges. He noted that provisions under the Uruguay GATT round gave him the authority to modify TRQs, “under certain circumstances, where the President determines that the supply of the same or directly competitive or substitutable agricultural product will be inadequate, because of a natural disaster, disease, or major national market disruption.”

“After considering the information provided to me by the Secretary of Agriculture, among other relevant information, I find that imports of lean beef trimmings into the US are currently subject to the US TRQ for beef and determine that the supply of lean beef trimmings or directly competitive or substitutable agricultural products will be inadequate to meet domestic demand at reasonable prices,” he said in the statement.

“Accordingly… it is necessary and appropriate to temporarily increase the quantity of imports of lean beef trimmings subject to the in-quota rate of duty established under the beef TRQ. In addition, I determine that it is appropriate to allocate all of the increased in-quota quantity of beef, as established by this proclamation, to Argentina.”

Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said the new agreement would “grant an unprecedented expansion of preferential access for Argentine beef to its market by 100,000t, representing an increase of $800 million in Argentine beef exports.”

Trump’s executive order said domestic US beef production capacity had failed to keep pace with increasing demand in recent years, leading to higher prices. The order noted that the cost of US beef had soared, peaking at US$6.69 per pound in December, according to the Federal Reserve.  That was the highest level beef prices have reached since the Department of Labor started tracking prices in 1984.

The announcement came as the annual US National Cattlemens Beef Association conference – Cattle Con – was winding up in Nashville.

NCBA said the increase in imports was a misguided effort and would damage the livelihoods of American cattlemen and women, while doing little to impact the price US consumers are paying at the grocery store.

In a statement in October, when plans for expanding imports were first reported, NCBA said it could not stand behind the President while he undercut the future of family farmers and ranchers by importing Argentinian beef in an attempt to influence prices.

“It is imperative that President Trump and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins let the cattle markets work,” NCBA’s chief executive Colin Woodall said at the time.

“NCBA’s family farmers and ranchers have numerous concerns with importing more Argentinian beef to lower prices for consumers. This plan only creates chaos at a critical time of the year for American cattle producers, while doing nothing to lower grocery store prices,” he said.

“Additionally, Argentina has a deeply unbalanced trade relationship with the US In the past five years Argentina has sold more than $800 million of beef into the US market. By comparison, the US has sold just over $7 million worth of American beef to Argentina. Argentina also has a history of foot-and-mouth disease, which if brought to the United States, could decimate our domestic livestock production.”

“Let the market work”

NCBA called on Trump and members of Congress to let the market work, rather than intervening in ways that “did nothing but harm rural America.”

US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr told last Thursday’s NCBA convention in Nashville that “nobody in the administration wants to be importing beef.”

“President Trump’s promise to the American people is to drive down the price of groceries and so you have to balance those priorities, but we’re doing everything we can to encourage people to increase the size of the herds in this country,” Sen Kennedy said.

Trump previously urged US cattle ranchers to “get their prices down” in an effort to deliver price relief to consumers.

“The Cattle Ranchers, who I love, don’t understand that the only reason they are doing so well, for the first time in decades, is because I put tariffs on cattle coming into the United States,” he wrote on social media in October.

“If it weren’t for me, they would be doing just as they’ve done for the past 20 years – terrible. It would be nice if they would understand that.”

Under the new trade agreement, the US plans to remove reciprocal tariffs on a variety of goods from Argentina including pharmaceutical ingredients, and review other tariffs on steel and aluminum.

“The deepening partnership between President Trump and (Argentina’s) President Milei serves as a model of how countries in the Americas, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, can advance our shared ambitions and safeguard our economic and national security,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Friday.

Trump’s announcement is already the second major tariff/quota impact on Australian beef export prospects this year, following China’s announcement on 1 January that quota restrictions and a 55pc tariff will apply on Australian beef this year.

Click here to read the full Trump Argentina beef statement.