Trump plan to import ground beef is more about baloney than beef

Cattle producers are fuming at President Trump's decision last week to bring 300 metric tons of ground beef into the country, tariff free. With cattle markets falling hard since the first of August, this added supply of foreign beef sends a negative signal to ranchers.

That doesn’t seem to bother Trump, who said he’s doing it “to substantially lower the price of ground beef for working American families.”

To that I’d say his expectations are unrealistic. He’s overstating the downside pricing effect of putting this relatively piddly amount of beef into the market.

First of all, how many pounds of beef are we talking about?  300 tons is 600,000 pounds, which sounds like a lot, but is actually a fraction of total beef consumption in the United States, where people eat about 28 billion pounds (roughly 14 million tons) of beef every year. That equates to 76 million pounds a day.

I don’t get where adding 600,000 pounds of imported beef to the supply chain will have much of an impact on prices at retail outlets and I doubt that it will. Trump is putting on a show, acting like he’s doing something about inflation. Substantive results won’t materialize.

Still, he’s determined to promote his fantasy, saying that “we have a commitment that this beef will be sold at 25 percent below current market prices.”

Where those commitments come from and how they’ll be put into place is another story. I mean, where, when and how will this beef be segregated from higher priced domestic supplies, and who will be the consumers purchasing it?

More interesting though is that Trump is apparently requiring retailers to set their prices for this imported commodity. That’s a common tactic in controlled economies, and is also a classic example of how communism works, where prices are set by the authorities, not by the market. Since when does a Republican, and one who is lately using the word “communist” to describe  American Democrats, step into the market place to make sure goods are sold at a price determined by him?

That’s about as communist as it gets, isn’t it? Don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to sink my teeth into a “commie burger.” Karl Marx would approve.

In the meantime, cattle producers and their representatives in Congress are making a justified  fuss over the president’s decision. The amount may be negligible, but the precedent isn’t the most promising for the livestock industry.

Oh, and there’s one more thing.  Trump’s explanation that removing tariffs will cheapen beef is a tacit – no, a brazen – admission that despite his claims otherwise, tariffs actually do raise prices for consumers.

Trump and his misguided advisors must believe this move will give Trump some creds as an inflation fighter, but I doubt that people are buying it. This plan is more about baloney than beef.

John Tsitrian is a businessman and writer from the Black Hills. He was a weekly columnist for the Rapid City Journal for 20 years. His articles and commentary have also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post and The Omaha World-Herald. Tsitrian served in the Marines for three years (1966-69), including a 13-month tour of duty as a radioman in Vietnam. Republish with permission.  

Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons

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