U.S. beef prices have been stubbornly high for a variety of reasons, including drought and reduced imports from Mexico due to a flesh-eating pest in cattle herds there.
U.S. beef prices have been stubbornly high for a variety of reasons, including drought and reduced imports from Mexico due to a flesh-eating pest in cattle herds there.
When markets are divided due to local borders, discriminatory quotas or trade regulations, or other non-tariff barriers to entry, it makes no sense to take a global view of supply and demand, since there’s no global market, only dozens of balkanized local markets.
The US imports 7% of its beef from Brazil, 5% from Australia, 4% from Canada, 3% from New Zealand, 2% from Mexico, and 4% from the rest of the world.
That’s 25% of our beef from the global market… and you are saying there is no global market? Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand aren’t exactly close neighbors. Brazil just got slapped with a 50% tariff, so what barriers to entry does Argentina have that Brazil does not?