Agriculture secretary says beef import plan still under discussion

The Trump administration’s plan to temporarily suspend higher tariffs on ground beef imports is still under discussion, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday.

“I am not privy to talk about that,” Rollins said when asked by reporters outside of the White House about the details of the decision.

“I think the conversations are still going on, and that’s Ambassador Greer who’s finalizing what exactly that looks like, and I think the president’s involved in that as well,” the secretary added, referring to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

The secretary’s comments follow backlash among some Republicans over the proposed plan to temporarily pause “out-of-quota” tariffs on up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef. President Trump announced the decision Friday, saying these imported products would be sold at 25 percent below market price.

Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) said he had advised the Trump administration “against this course of action for a year,” citing concerns about negative impacts on American ranchers.

“But the reality is this action will make it more difficult for American ranchers to rebuild our herd and bring prices down for the American people,” the senator wrote on social media . “And most importantly, this will harm our ranching families who feed the nation.”

Trump lashed out at former Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie (R) after they challenged his plan .

The Kentucky Republican slammed the move as a “slap in the face to American cattlemen & consumers.”

“Worse than socialism! Dumping foreign beef in U.S. markets can temporarily lower prices but it won’t incentivize American farmers to raise more beef. Bring back Country Of Origin Labels & pass my PRIME Act,” he wrote in a social media post .

Greene similarly accused the administration of putting “American beef LAST and foreign beef FIRST.”

“Now they will be undercut by foreign imported beef, as they have been hit financially with high cost of fertilizer and diesel from Trump’s war with Iran,” she wrote on social media .

The Trump administration has pointed to a historically small U.S. cattle population and the New World screwworm outbreak as driving forces behind rising domestic beef prices.

Trump defended his move to reporters before boarding Air Force One on Friday, saying it was “what the voters want.” The issue of affordability has been a central theme across Republican and Democratic campaigns this midterm election cycle.

“I love the ranchers,” Trump told reporters. “They’ve done a fantastic job, but they admit that we need a little help in order to get the prices down, so that is what we’re doing.”