At the recent Cattle Industry Summer Business Meeting in San Diego, Senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays spoke with Executive Director of Government Affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Kent Bacus. Our Coverage from San Diego is powered by Farm Data Services of Stillwater.
Kent Bacus opened by explaining the trade landscape under President Trump, describing how the administration hit the ground running with an aggressive trade agenda. “On day one, President Trump came in and said, ‘Look, here’s my executive order on the America First trade policy. This is what we’re going to do.’” Bacus emphasized that tariffs were the President’s “tool of choice,” and while controversial, the cattle industry saw an opportunity. “We’ve really tried to find out, how can we direct that action in a way that’s going to benefit the cattle industry, benefit cattle producers.”
He acknowledged the complexity of the global beef trade, noting that the U.S. still faces “outstanding trade issues with Australia, with Brazil,” and emphasized the importance of holding trade partners accountable. Still, there have been victories: “What’s the first trade deal that’s announced? It’s with the UK. What’s part of that announcement? Beef.” He framed this as a direct result of persistent advocacy and a win for producers. “This is part of the bigger initiative for the President to really make our beef and our cattle producers more competitive.”
When asked about China, Bacus didn’t hold back. He celebrated past progress: “Trump one, we had a remarkable win for the beef industry.” But he was sharply critical of the follow-through. “Unfortunately, the Biden administration just didn’t hold them accountable, like we kept asking them to do. Now we need to renegotiate.” He called for stronger enforcement mechanisms to prevent backsliding: “We need to have a trade partner that will actually stick to its word.”
Bacus highlighted several examples of how China has undermined U.S. beef access. “China just failed to renew the export licenses for 396 processing facilities,” effectively shutting many out of the market. He said China was also “finding other ways to back out of commitments they’d made on hormones and other technologies.” This kind of behavior, Bacus warned, undermines trust and shows why “you’ve always got to watch your back” when dealing with China.
Despite the challenges, Bacus stressed that momentum is building through broader trade efforts. “When we start to add up all of these other trade agreements… that builds a lot of leverage against the Chinese.” He said America’s re-engagement in trade policy sends a message: “We’re out there setting these standards, and we’re not going to take it.” Long-term stability is the goal, but “you got to have the right terms in place to make sure they can’t back out of the deal next time there’s somebody else in office.”
Finally, Bacus pointed to the importance of personnel. “You got to get people confirmed. You got to, they got to be appointed and confirmed.” While the process is slow, he expressed optimism about new leadership under Secretary Rollins and Ambassador Greer: “We’ve got some top talent across the board in our government, and not everybody can say that, but we can in agriculture.” As trade talks heat up, Bacus said the cattle industry is ready to work hard: “This is not an administration that believes in nights and weekends it’s not a picnic for us either we’re making up for lost time.”
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