Agricultural Economics Department
Cornhusker Economics
Date of this Version
9-30-2015
Document Type
Article
Citation
Cornhusker Economics, September 30, 2015, agecon.unl.edu/cornhuskereconomics
Abstract
United States beef imports have been a controversial issue since 1958, which marked the beginning of major U.S. imports of beef from Australia. From the onset, U.S. beef producers have always been concerned with unrestricted beef imports fearing they would depress prices in the domestic market. In response to these fears, the U.S. Congress enacted the 1964 Meat Import law (P.L. 88-482) limiting red meat imports to approximately 7% of the then current domestic red meat production. This system was replaced by a beef Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ). Historically, TRQ countries rarely fill their quotas. The table on the next page provides the most recent year-to-date data on beef exports to the U.S. by country and a brief explanation of how TRQs work.
Comments
Copyright 2015 University of Nebraska.