President Trump’s announcement to open the door to 300,000 metric tons of imported ground beef without tariffs has triggered swift backlash from U.S. cattle producers. The announcement caused cattle prices to fall, even though the current tight supply and strong demand situation hasn’t changed.
Now there’s a growing set of documented ties between the decision and JBS, the Brazilian-owned meatpacking giant, that’s causing even more scrutiny and raising questions about the actual motive behind the President’s decision.
The Post That Moved the Market
The Truth Social post came Friday, Aug. 21. President Trump announced a decision to pause higher tariffs on ground beef imports for 90 days, allowing up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef into the U.S. out-of-quota and tariff-free.
“This deal will reduce prices for Americans while giving space for our Great American Beef Herd to grow again,” the president said in the post.
Jim Hertzog, owner of Mo-Kan Livestock Market, says when he initially saw that post, his first reaction was disbelief.
“Typical Trump. I couldn’t believe it,” Hertzog says. “This is the third time that he’s attacked the cattlemen with three major tweets, and this one seems to be more devastating than any of the others. The board has crashed. I mean, the August feeder board is down almost $40 now, which is several dollars per head.”
JBS Ties to the Administration Draw Questions and Scrutiny
Imports of ground beef aren’t new. However, the frustration among producers is the belief that bringing in more ground beef out-of-quota, tariff-free won’t actually bring retail beef prices down.
When Hertzog was asked who he thinks is influencing the decision, he pointed straight to JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, and a company with long-documented ties to the Trump administration.
“I think it’s the Batista brothers, JBS,” Hertzog says. “You’ve got to remember, they bribed 1,800 political people in Brazil. What stopped them from doing it here? That’s a lot of people to get their ear. And they did it.”
While the White House hasn’t said publicly which countries will ultimately supply the tariff-free beef, U.S. Farm Report over the weekend reported that JBS’s owners have given $5 million to Trump’s inauguration day celebration. Separately, AgBull reported this week that at least 119,000 lb. of JBS-linked meat shipments are sitting at the Port of Houston.
New: WSJ Reporting Ties the Decision Directly to a Private Oval Office Meeting
However, new facts came to light Tuesday, as the Wall Street Journal reported Joesley Batista, a controlling owner of JBS, met privately with Trump in the Oval Office on Aug. 20, which was one day before the tariff-pause announcement. The Wall Street Journal also reports the two discussed lowering a 26% import tax on Brazilian beef. Trump’s public post the next day proposed selling the imported beef at roughly a 25% discount to market prices.
For JBS, easier access for its Brazilian-origin beef would expand its footprint in the American market at a moment when its U.S. processing operations are under financial strain. Brazil shipped roughly $1.5 billion worth of beef to the U.S. in the first half of this year, according to USDA data — up roughly 10% from a year earlier.
JBS is currently one of four major U.S. meatpackers under Justice Department investigation for possible anticompetitive conduct, a probe the companies deny wrongdoing in.
Why This Move May Not Bring Down the Price of Retail Ground Beef
If the imported beef ends up coming from Brazil, the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) says it likely won’t reach shoppers as fresh ground beef at all, meaning it wouldn’t deliver the price relief the administration is promising.
Gregg Doud, president and CEO of NMPF and a former chief U.S. agricultural negotiator, notes that nearly all dairy cull cow product flows into the ground beef supply, where it’s blended with trimmings from fed cattle carcasses.
“That would all have to be blended together, and essentially all of that would go into food service or fast food... fast food hamburger,” Doud says.
Asked whether the imported beef would actually reach grocery store shelves, Doud says no, pointing instead to two narrow outlets: fast-food hamburger and canned soup products, such as Campbell’s Chunky Soup.
For dairy producers who’ve leaned on strong beef prices to offset weak milk prices, Doud says the plan offers little relief — and he doesn’t expect it to move retail beef prices much either. Brazilian beef, he notes, is already the cheapest lean product on the world market (roughly 90% lean, versus about 80% for Australian product), so relieving the tariff mostly benefits the exporter, not the American consumer.
Instead, Doud says the bigger effect may be psychological, and it adds a layer of supply pressure to a cattle market already bracing for its seasonal cull-cow run, which is happening right now.
Cattle Producers’ Message to Trump: “Just Stay Out of Our Lane”
On the ground, the reaction from cattle country has been immediate. Feeder cattle futures dropped sharply within days of the announcement, and producers and industry groups have questioned both who is driving the policy and whether it will do what the administration says it will.
Asked what he would tell the administration directly, Hertzog is blunt.
“Just stay out of our lane,” Hertzog says. “Let the market work. That’s what it’s designed to do. Stay out of our lane. Put country-of-origin labeling in place. Make sure it gets on the farm bill and passes. And then the American public can decide.”
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