Early Tariff Impacts on Beef Exports

By David Anderson

It’s been about six weeks since U.S. tariffs and retaliatory tariffs were announced, impacting beef. One of the reasons the beef trade market is so interesting is that the U.S. imports and exports beef. The mix of products varies by country, including muscle cuts, trimmings, variety meats, and hides. Even though tariff levels continue to fluctuate, enough time has passed to begin to see some impacts on beef exports to one market in particular – China.

Weekly fresh and frozen beef muscle cut export data is available through the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. The data is reported for a large number of countries and can be aggregated to regions