President Donald Trump is trying to make your hamburger cheaper, but his plan may not put much of a dent at the supermarket register.
Last week, Trump signed an executive proclamation allowing 300,000 metric tons of beef to enter the US duty-free for 90 days starting on September 1. The imports are required to be sold at “25 percent below the market price,” according to the proclamation. A pound of ground beef currently costs Americans about $6.89 on average, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
The White House hasn’t specified how a lower tariff rate on ground beef would lower prices, only telling CNN that foreign exporters are willing to discount the beef because there are no duties. It’s also unclear how the agencies tasked with overseeing the program will monitor whether the imports are actually being sold at those prices.
But even if the beef is sold for a lower price, that won’t make much of a difference at grocery stores.
“It’ll be some additional pounds on the market that we didn’t have before, and in that context, that could be good for consumers,” said Glynn Tonsor, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University who studies meat pricing. “But I think it’s easily overstated how much it might help.”
