(KFYR) – Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak says she was just as surprised as North Dakota ranchers when President Donald Trump announced a directive to import 300,000 tons of tariff-free foreign ground beef into the United States.
The policy is designed to lower grocery bills for consumers by selling the beef at 25% below current market price, but it has received immediate pushback.
Fedorchak warns that bringing in cheap foreign meat hurts local producers at the worst possible time. Ranchers are currently trying to rebuild and grow their own herds, and Fedorchak believes Washington should be encouraging that local investment instead of undercutting it.
“I was not expecting it to happen,” Fedorchak said. “In fact, this happened at a smaller scale last fall. And we had a similar reaction. And I thought that we had kind of gotten past this. And that the White House knew that this was not the right way to get where we want to go, which is lower beef prices for everybody.”
Fedorchak expressed her opposition directly to the administration in a phone call with USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, urging a return to policies that incentivize domestic production.
“The agreement hasn’t been signed. And so maybe there’s a chance that it doesn’t happen and we can get this reversed,” Fedorchak said.
Regardless of whether the executive order stands, Fedorchak is exploring other federal avenues to protect independent ranchers and rebuild their profitability. Her primary legislative targets include establishing stricter country-of-origin labeling and reducing regulatory barriers to help local meat processing sites expand.
“There’s still more to be done, whether it’s country of origin labeling, some requirement that the import beef gets labeled as not American beef or from the country that it’s coming from, so people can distinguish, so that we can protect these farmers and ranchers,” Fedorchak said, adding that easing entry into the processing field would create more competition and help producers make more profit closer to home.
President Trump has not announced a specific date for signing the executive order. The directive is expected to be signed within the next two weeks.
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