>>175353,
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>>175360,
>>175361,
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>>175364,
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>>175377,
>>175378,
>>175379,
>>175380,
>>175381,
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>>175421,
>>1754225. These factors have combined to result in the United States cattle herd contracting to record lows. As of July 2025, the United States cattle inventory totaled 94.2 million head, including 28.7 million beef cows. This is one percent lower than the United States cattle inventory surveyed in July 2023, continuing the downward trend of cattle inventory in the United States.
6. The abovementioned factors have also cumulatively resulted in higher beef prices for United States consumers, including for ground beef. Since January 2021, ground beef prices have continued to rise, reaching an average of $6.69 per pound in December 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the highest since the Department of Labor started tracking beef prices in the 1980s.
7. Despite the increased prices and the availability of more affordable protein alternatives, United States consumers' demand for beef remains strong. The United States imported a record high amount of beef in 2024, reaching 4.64 billion pounds, a more than 24 percent increase in beef imports since 2023. Among the beef products the United States imports are lean trimmings, which are blended with fattier domestic trimmings to produce ground beef products, such as hamburgers.
8. The Secretary of Agriculture has monitored the domestic supply of beef products subject to a tariff-rate quota (TRQ), including lean beef trimmings falling under Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) statistical reporting numbers 0201.30.5085 and 0202.30.5085, and noted the domestic supply of such products and substitutable products combined with the estimated imports of such products under the United States beef import TRQ. The Secretary of Agriculture also advised on related domestic demand and pricing.
9. As President of the United States, I have a responsibility to ensure that hard-working Americans can afford to feed themselves and their families. After considering the information provided to me by the Secretary of Agriculture, among other relevant information, I am taking action to temporarily increase the quantity of in-quota imports of lean beef trimmings under the United States beef TRQ to increase the supply of ground beef for United States consumers.
10. Section 404 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA) (Public Law 103-465, 108 Stat. 4809, 4959-61 (19 U.S.C. 3601)) authorizes the President, in certain circumstances, to modify TRQs on certain agricultural products. In particular, section 404(b) of the URAA (19 U.S.C. 3601(b)) provides that where imports of an agricultural product are subject to a TRQ, and where the President determines and proclaims that the supply of the same or directly competitive or substitutable agricultural product will be inadequate, because of a natural disaster, disease, or major national market disruption, to meet domestic demand at reasonable prices, the President may temporarily increase the quantity of imports of the agricultural product that is subject to the in-quota rate of duty established under the TRQ. And section 404(d)(3) of the URAA (19 U.S.C. 3601(d)(3)) provides that the President may allocate the in-quota quantity of a TRQ for any agricultural product among supplying countries or
customs areas and may modify any allocation as determined appropriate by the President.
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