“You are selling us out,” these were the words expressed by struggling American farmers as President Trump signed a deal that increased low tariffs for importing beef from Argentina to ease record beef prices in the United States. CNN reports that the American people consume about 12 million tons of beef. Local farmers produce ten million tons of these, with the additional 2 million tons imported. Argentina currently produces about 2% of the imported beef, which translates to shipping approximately 20,000 tons of beef to the American people. The real fear for the local farmers in America is that this newly signed deal will give South American producers a competitive edge in the market over the US farmers, hence their outcry.

A statement from the White House Official provided to CNN revealed that the newly signed deal will allow Argentina to import up to 3 times more than the prevision 20,000 tons, raising their tons to 80,000 per quarter. This has been done to try and influence beef prices in the US for consumers.

President Trump, responding to these concerns through his account on X, explained that the only reason beef farmers are doing well in America is because of some of the tariffs he put in place for countries like Brazil. “I put tariffs up to 50% for Brazil. It would be nice if farmers also brought down their prices to cater for the consumer as well,” he said.

Colin Woodall, who is the CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, a trade Association for beef producers, in a statement explained that they could not stand behind President Trump on this decision. “We cannot stand behind the president while he undercuts the future of family farmers and ranchers by importing Argentinian beef in an attempt to influence prices.”