Meat sector unclear what Trump's tariff's mean for New Zealand

The export meat sector says it's not clear what the implications will be for New Zealand, from Donald Trump's latest tariff announcement.

In an effort to control soaring grocery prices in America, the US has decided that countries can send up to 300 thousand metric tonnes of ground beef product to the US for 90 days, without triggering expensive out-of-quota tariffs.

Usually, countries which exceed their usual import levels face a heavy tariff of just over 26 percent. It has not yet been announced which countries will be included in the deal.

Trump said on a post to Truth Social, that his administration has secured a commitment that imported beef will be sold at 25 percent below current US market prices.

Kate Acland from Beef and Lamb, said New Zealand already has excellent meat access into the US and is currently tariff-free.

"We sell a lot of lean beef trim into there, so it's an important market for what could otherwise be a lower value product but it's also a really important market for some of our competitors like Brazil and Australia who don't enjoy quite the same same access into the US."

Acland sad it's too soon to judge whether the announcement will lower beef prices, but she says if Brazil benefited from the tariff change, it would have the potential to have a slight downward impact on prices.

She says exporters will have to wait for more details to be released.