September 14 2026
Comments
In August, Donald Trump sided with consumers by increasing the tariff-free quota on imported beef for 90 days beginning September 1. The concession will last three months. It would be a minor story with any other president in the White House. But under Trump, even dull-sounding trade news can take on a sudden importance, especially when mixed up with foreign affairs.
Trump’s justification for favoring Argentina, whose 2026 quota he increased by 80,000 metric tons, is partly geopolitical: he wants to give support to Javier Milei’s free-market regime, seeing it as a foil to left-leaning governments elsewhere in Latin America. He seems so eager to curry favor with Milei, in fact, that he’s been willing to weaken US support for British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, abandoning an old ally because his administration remains angry that Britain failed to support his military intervention in Iran.
But it is not hard to see why Trump should be drawn to invite a little more beef into the US. The price of beef for consumers has risen by 22 percent over the past year alone. Over ten years it has nearly doubled. A large part of this is down to Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs imposed in April 2025. Not only have these increased the price of beef imports, they have hurt domestic beef producers too.
