The U.S.-China trade relationship was a major focus of the U.S. Meat Export Federation Spring Conference. John Newton (pictured), the executive head of Terrain, told USMEF members that he expects the current tariff battle to lead to a Phase Two trade agreement between the two countries.
“I might be one of the few people that thinks we’re going to get a Phase Two deal with China,” Newton says. “I think what President Trump has to do is, by March of next year, he’s got to show real progress on the Big Beautiful Bill, real progress on trade deals, real progress on the economy.”
Why by March? Newton speculates that the administration has to meet these goals before campaigning begins for midterm elections.
“Everybody in the House is going to be back in their districts campaigning. And what do they want to campaign on? They want to campaign on wins,” he continues. “So I think we’ve got about a six or seven-month window for some of these things to get done, and I’m pretty confident that they will get done.”
Meanwhile, USMEF President and CEO Dan Halstrom says offices are developing and capitalizing on alternative destinations. This includes promotion with a large grocer in Korea to build sales of frozen beef cuts. The cuts usually go to China, but there’s a 150 percent tariff on beef into China.
“We’ve become pretty good at being nimble because of all the uncertainty and unknowns in the global marketplace over the last several years,” Halstrom says. “So when you see something like China happen, where we’re pivoting on the demand side, this is what our membership expects of us.”
