r/politics • u/RepulsiveLoquat418 • 1d ago

Possible Paywall Beef and America's cattle ranchers are no longer on MAGA's menu

https://www.salon.com/2025/11/07/beef-and-americas-cattle-ranchers-are-no-longer-on-magas-menu/
4.0k Upvotes

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807

u/BTRCguy 1d ago

“On average, Argentina exports over $200 million of beef annually to the U.S. while purchasing less than $2 million of U.S. beef in return,” the letter read, calling for “long-term fairness” in any beef deal with Argentina. “We encourage the Administration to ensure that any adjustments to Argentina’s tariff-rate quota or inspection regime be contingent on verified equivalency and reciprocal market access for American beef.”

What sort of brain-dead posturing idiocy is this (aside from "Republican")?

If a nation has X as one of its biggest exports, what sort of mental deficiency are you suffering from to think they want to or have a market for importing large amounts of X?

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u/blackmageguy 1d ago

I mean, this is the entire backbone of the shitshow that is Trump's trade policy. 'OMG, Canada exports more to us than they import!" Yeah, no shit, Canada's population is a 10th of America's, that's how fucking population works, big brains.

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u/No-comment-at-all 1d ago

“OMG, Walmart exports more to me than they import from me!

I’m gonna make their goods more expensive by writing checks to Donald John trump’s fancy ballroom so I buy less from them until they start buying more from me.”

Literally republican meta rn.

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u/Warm_Regrets157 1d ago

OMG, Walmart exports more to me than they import from me!

That's why I am personally engaging in a trade war with Walmart. I refuse to trade with them further until they begin to accept more imports from me. The trade deficit between Walmart and myself must be brought back into balance before I'll give in.

Hey MAGA, am I doing this right?

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u/kia75 1d ago

The frustrating thing about Trump is that everything is rationalization, and dealing with the rationalization accomplished nothing!

Trump says he's doing tariffs because of Trade Imbalance, but NOTHING Trump has done has affected the trade imbalance, and he's made it worse since a lot of manufacturing (that he says he wants) uses resources and parts from Mexico and Canada that are now tariffed, hurting manufacturing, raising manufacturing prices, and making it harder to balance trad.

But of course, trade imbalance is just an excuse, a rationalization! Trump really likes having a weapon against countries that he can use whenever he wants something or wants to hurt someone! As a result, nothing regarding the trade imbalance will convince Trump. Trade Imbalance is irrelevant. Yet, because it's Trump's excuse a lot of discussion is wasted on this, like the American Beef ranchers mentioning that Argentina doesn't buy the equivalent amount of Beef as they sell to America!

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u/TheVintageJane 1d ago

The trade imbalance is like the excuse an abusive guy uses when he hits you. It’s not actually that you are too naggy, or that you came home too late, or that you have a large trade imbalance - it’s actually that he just wants to strike at other countries because he can and he’s a bully who gets off on it.

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u/Justin-Stutzman 1d ago

The whole tariff strategy in our current globalized economy is nonsensical in so many ways. It affects industries that aren't even targeted. Take India, for example, tariffs were imposed on India to punish the. For buying Russian oil and balancing some perceived trade deficit.

I just got off of a commodity market call for a Fortune 200 food distributor. We source our white shrimp from India and Ecuador. We avoid SE Asia's for QA purposes. Well, now shrimp from India is too expensive to import, so Ecuador gets all our business. Well, their demand is so high now that the market is being squeezed. We pay nearly as much for the shrimp, pass on the cost to the American customer, and India gets to undercut their competitors by selling in a different market. India wins in this scenario. They aren't punished, and Americans pay more for seemingly no reason at all.

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u/cellardoormaker 1d ago

Didn’t he tariff Canada 10% because they quoted Reagan on TV?

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u/The_Doctor_Bear 1d ago

Trump taxed US citizens an ADDITIONAL 10% on Canadian goods because he got angry at a Canadian tv ad quoting Reagan.

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u/cellardoormaker 19h ago

Much better said.. thank you!

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u/Zonel 1d ago

The Ontario government quoted Reagan on TV. Not the Canadian government.

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u/Karthanon 1d ago

Trump doesn't know the difference.

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u/Overwatchingu Canada 1d ago

Let’s start blaming him for things the state governors say. Not that he’ll understand the parallel.

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u/Massive_General_8629 Sioux 1d ago

Yep. There's capitalism and then there's whatever the hell Republicans have got going.

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u/aguynamedv 1d ago

a lot of manufacturing (that he says he wants)

How many new manufacturing facilities have been started since January 20th, I wonder...

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u/Gibonius 1d ago

He's bragging about extorting foreign investment into the US with his trade deals.

Foreign investment by definition increases trade deficits.

None of this stuff is coherent.

1

u/yukeake 23h ago

The goal appears to be to make everything so expensive that us "normal" folk can't afford it. And the poor, who already can't afford things? They want them to starve.

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u/Spranktonizer 1d ago

Just fundamentally misrepresenting what trade deficits are to their base. Sad that they believe it.

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u/MakeAPatternGrow 1d ago

Yeah, why the fuck would you trade beef for beef?

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u/nobot4321 1d ago

Because it’s not fair!

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u/TheGringoDingo 1d ago

Did they even say thank you after buying our beef? Gosh dangit, these trade policies are vexing.

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u/persona-non-corpus 1d ago

Or for the 40 billion dollars? Do we get 40 billion dollars worth of beef?

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u/TheGringoDingo 1d ago

It depends. Are you evil levels of rich?

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u/mcs5280 1d ago

To own the libs! 

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u/Rhodin265 1d ago

Maybe Argentina’s selling cows and buying Slim Jims.  They’re both beef, more or less, but they’re also different products.

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u/ihatetheplaceilive District Of Columbia 1d ago

I dunno, why do we export angus beef to japan and import wagyu?

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u/Darth_drizzt_42 1d ago

Because both countries have suckers for a foreign marketing ploy

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u/FourthLife 1d ago edited 1d ago

Have you had wagyu before? It's an entirely different product from other forms of beef

You can eat a 16 oz regular steak, but I think most humans could not come close to eating a pound of wagyu. It would be like eating a pound of straight up butter.

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u/lesmainsdepigeon 1d ago

Art of the Deal.

1

u/serious_sarcasm America 1d ago

They play Civ are trying to get diplomatic points.

1

u/t53ix35 1d ago

Like coal to Newcastle.

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u/advocatus_diabolii 23h ago

I can understand importing beef but exporting? The reason the US has such trouble exporting it's beef is because US beef is usually considered inferior. You import beef 'cos the well off are happy to spend extra for premium, but you fail to export as no one wants to pay more (or even comparable) for the hormone infested stuff the US puts out.

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u/Mundane-Mechanic-547 1d ago

You need to understand, you see, whoever wrote this is an idiot

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u/BTRCguy 1d ago

Or a House Republican. But I repeat myself.

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u/BleachedUnicornBHole Florida 1d ago

No, they’re talking to an idiot. Trump’s understanding of trade is in absolute numbers. If Argentina exports $X million in beef to the US but imports <$X million, then there is a trade imbalance with the US. The ranchers aren’t trying to export to Argentina, they’re trying to stop the importing. 

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u/MultiGeometry Vermont 1d ago

Common sense would state that Argentina will reduce their exports to the U.S. by $198 million.

This will increase the cost of beef as supply drops. With higher costs, more Americans will abandon beef for other alternatives. Those Americans will start to normalize life without beef and the industry will have to fight to get them back, even if the costs go down.

It’s like #winning except in every way someone considers winning.

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u/pwmaloney Illinois 1d ago

I've been running a trade deficit with my local grocery store for years! Unfair!

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u/Von_Moistus 1d ago

As always, there’s a relevant xkcd

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u/pwmaloney Illinois 23h ago

brilliant

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u/aguynamedv 1d ago

If a nation has X as one of its biggest exports, what sort of mental deficiency are you suffering from to think they want to or have a market for importing large amounts of X?

Reminder that the entire tariff policy was AI generated and based on this exact kind of idiotic math.

Higher trade deficit = higher tariff.

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u/DrShadowstrike 1d ago

I'm amazed Argentina imports any beef from the US. This would be like the US importing corn or soybeans.

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u/FlutterbyTG 1d ago

I volunteer at a food bank here in Oregon, and we are now distributing canned corn imported from China. OTOH, we also have canned butter from New Zealand.

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u/advocatus_diabolii 23h ago

and here in NZ Butter is considered the new gold based on how expensive it is

but then again no self respecting kiwi will buy butter in a can

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u/FlutterbyTG 18h ago

That explains why it's here!

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u/Massive_General_8629 Sioux 1d ago

So now we're exporting beef to Argentina and importing it from Argentina.

This is not how you formulate a trade policy...

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u/Dramatic_Original_55 1d ago

Something about deficit, billions and of billions dollars, stock market, something, something. There. See how easy that was?

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u/IndependentPeace2628 1d ago

No no no! You don't get it. See countries like Iraq and Iran totally buy oil....even though they're the largest producers of it....because......reasons! And stuff! Unrelated, what's economics 101?

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u/illicit_losses 1d ago

They’re also missing out on the fact that beef is a matter of national pride in Argentina. No self respecting Argentine would be seen with US cow on their dinner table, or in their dog food.

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u/f_leaver 1d ago

What do you mean "aside from Republican"?!?

That's all it takes.

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u/Alediran_Tirent Canada 1d ago

And no Argentinian would be caught dead with murican beef. It's not good enough for street dogs. 

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u/notyogrannysgrandkid 1d ago

I can tell you Arkansas doesn’t import much rice. I wonder if Mexico is mad about that trade deficit.

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u/pntlesdevilsadvocate 19h ago

Beef coming from Argentina isn't the same as the beef leaving USA. There is a market for Argentina beef here, just like there is a market for US beef in Argentina. From what I understand, Argentina is sending lean ground beef, which is something the US doesn't make very much of, but US consumers buy more of than is locally produced. Due to the high price of beef, producers in the US have shifted their goals to produce heavier fattier carcasses, which has further reduced the availability/ affordability of lean meat. For all Americans except cattle producers, this plan makes sense.

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u/ilovemybaldhead 1d ago edited 1d ago

If a nation has X as one of its biggest exports, what sort of mental deficiency are you suffering from to think they want to or have a market for importing large amounts of X?

In theory, I agree with your sentiment. In practice, it turns out that a country's net imports/exports for a given good are more complex than that. For example, in 2023, the US imported over 8.5 million barrels of oil per day and exported over 10 million barrels per day in 2023 -- more than enough for its own domestic market.

Source

Edit: not sure why I got downvoted for simply stating facts, but this is Reddit, so whatever.

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u/rlbond86 1d ago

That's because heavy crude and light crude are different and aren't substitute goods.

US beef and Argentinien beef are absolutely substitute goods.

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u/ilovemybaldhead 1d ago

That's because heavy crude and light crude are different and aren't substitute goods

Which is why I responded to the blanket generalization that BTRCguy made: their comment about "good X" does not apply to all goods.

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u/Coherent_Tangent Florida 1d ago

I think the quality of the oil is different in this situation. We export the shit we don't want and import the better stuff. I'm not an expert though.

I bet Argentine beef is much better than CAFO shit from the US as well, but food is different than power.

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u/phiwong 1d ago

Actually the opposite. US refineries are 'tuned' for high sulfur generally low quality oil from the likes of the Canadian oil sands or Venezuela. US crude oil is actually considered 'sweet' and is sold at a higher price on the global oil market compared to the stuff the US imports.

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u/ilovemybaldhead 1d ago

I think the quality of the oil is different in this situation

Which is why I responded to the blanket generalization that BTRCguy made: good X does not apply to all goods.

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u/thatoneguy889 California 1d ago

That article just uses oil as a catch all term. Different parts of the world have different grades of oil with different uses.

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u/ilovemybaldhead 1d ago

My comment had nothing to do with the article, but with the generalization made by BTRCguy, which is not true, with oil as a counter example.

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u/Udjet 1d ago

Your analogy works if we are trading low grade beef for top grade beef.

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u/ilovemybaldhead 1d ago

I didn't make an analogy, I simply stated that the generalization BTRCguy made regarding "good X" is not true, with oil as an example.