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Economist says Brazil could play key role in expanded U.S. beef imports

There are still a lot of unanswered questions about the Trump administration’s plan to import up to 300,000 metric tons of beef.  Josh Maples, an ag economist with Mississippi State University Extension says, “How much of this is actually new beef versus beef that was coming anyway, and we just don’t know.” 

He says details remain limited.  “The fact sheet says that the proclamation does not apply to countries that have country-specific beef quotas.” 

Maples says that excludes countries with zero or low tariffs, like Canada, Mexico, or Australia.  He tells Brownfield the announcement appears to be geared toward the “other countries” category. “Countries that don’t have a particular quota or tariff rate quota with the US, that group’s dominated by Brazil in particular,” he says. “Brazil usually builds up supplies to be able to fill that other country’s category within the first few days of January each year, and they did that this year.” 

But Maples says, “We would have brought in beef from Brazil anyway, because we have been and we would have brought in beef from some other countries anyway, because we have been, even at the higher tariff.” 

On Wednesday, Politico reported that US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told a group of House Republicans that Brazil and Paraguay are in the best position to provide the additional beef.   

The recently announced plan aims to lower higher retail prices of beef and provide some relief to consumers in the near-term.