\u201cI am not privy to talk about that,\u201d Rollins<\/a> told reporters on Tuesday. \u201cI think the conversations are still going on,\u201d she added, saying that President Trump<\/a> and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were involved. <\/p>\n In a Truth Social post on Friday, President Trump claimed he had reached a deal<\/a> to allow up to 300,000 metric tons of meat destined to become ground beef into the U.S. to be sold at reduced prices for the next 90 days without tariffs or quotas. The plan, Trump said, would \u201csubstantially lower the price of ground beef<\/a> for working American families.\u201d<\/p>\n A White House official told The Independent<\/a> last week that Trump would \u201cformally sign an executive order\u201d to execute the agreement \u201cwithin the next two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n Since Trump returned to office last year, the price of ground beef has risen from $5.45 per pound to $6.85 per pound, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/p>\n On Monday, an Arizona border crossing reopened to Mexican cattle<\/a>, as fears have eased over the spread of the New World screwworm through Mexican cattle imports. The U.S. plans to open more border crossings as part of the beef plan. <\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s beef deal has met with stiff resistance from ranchers and Republicans, who argue that allowing more imports will do little to change the underlying conditions that have sent beef prices spiking, such as low herd sizes because of drought.<\/p>\n “Despite high beef prices in grocery stores, prices paid to farmers and ranchers for their cattle have fallen sharply over the past two months, and beef packing plants are shutting down across the U.S.,\u201d American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said in a statement after the plan was announced.<\/p>\n “Further undercutting a fragile recovery by swamping markets with foreign products and attempting to manipulate prices threatens to wipe out any progress that has been made,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve advised President Trump against this course of action for a year because American ranchers have been struggling against the packer monopoly for decades, and this will further harm them \u2014 most of whom are MAGA Republicans,\u201d Senator Tim Sheehy of Montana, a Trump ally, said<\/a> after the president’s announcement.<\/p>\n The Trump administration argues the temporary surge in imports won\u2019t impact farmers over the long term and merely represents a fraction of the beef imports that normally would\u2019ve been coming into the U.S. anyway, but for the screwworm. <\/p>\n Agribusiness experts, meanwhile, have doubts over whether the plan will lower prices.<\/p>\n “The administration obviously has a lot of incentive to try to be able to say that they\u2019re doing something about high beef prices in particular,” Derrell Peel, an agribusiness professor at Oklahoma State University, recently told the Associated Press. “Beef has been singled out because it is an expensive product and because it\u2019s just high profile.” <\/p>\n “I don\u2019t expect to see any measurable impact on cattle prices or beef prices soon,” he added.<\/p>\n The White House previously negotiated for thousands of tons of beef imports from Argentina to lower prices<\/a>, and the president has accused major meat packers of conspiring to keep prices high<\/a>. <\/p>\n![\"Secretary](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2026-08-25T170807Z_1130055397_RC2T5NAQOM88_RTRMADP_3_USA-TRUMP.JPG\")
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on Tuesday did not name the countries the U.S. is importing beef from as part of its plan to lower consumer prices (Reuters)<\/p>\n![\"Ranchers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2261218948...jpeg\")
Ranchers have argued against intervening in the market, while the administration argues the plan is a short-term measure to relieve American shoppers from high prices (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n