Claim:
China canceled all U.S. beef imports in March 2025 and will instead buy from Canada and Brazil.
Rating:
Rating: False
In March 2025, a claim (archived) circulated online that China had “canceled” U.S. beef and would instead buy from Canada and Brazil.
The claim was especially popular on Facebook (archived) but also circulated on X (archived), Threads (archived) and Bluesky (archived). Snopes readers searched our website and emailed us asking about the claim.
However, we found no evidence that China had stopped beef imports from the U.S. China did raise tariffs on a number of products from the U.S., including beef, on March 10, 2025. The rise came in response to a Trump administration executive order that raised tariffs (taxes imposed by a government on a person or company importing goods) on imports from China by 10%.
We reached out to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the U.S. about this claim and await their reply.
Joe Schuele, the senior vice president of communications at the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) said via email that the federation was not aware of China “canceling” U.S. beef or denying access to the market. We also found no credible media reports in English- or Chinese-language media stating this claim. Therefore, we rate this claim false.
Tariff rise came as US exporters awaited export registration renewals
Searches of reputable U.S. sources and Chinese news outlets did not reveal reports about China stopping beef imports from the U.S. Several Chinese outlets did report on China’s retaliatory tariffs on beef and other goods following Trump’s Feb. 1 executive order, but not on a “cancellation” of imports from the U.S.
According to the USMEF, a looming deadline for export registrations for U.S. meat exporters might have instead fueled the claim.
According to the USDA, in February 2025, the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC) allowed 84 registrations for U.S. meat exporters to expire. Four of these were registrations for beef exporters, the USDA said.
The GACC controls exports and imports to and from China. Businesses must register with the GACC to export their products to China.
According to USDA and the USMEF, “several hundred” more registrations were due to lapse in March and April, including some belonging to beef exporters. The USDA noted in its report that the exporters with expired licenses had continued exporting as of late February 2025.
Should the GACC decide to disallow access for exporters with expired registrations and also refuse to renew them, that could amount to a stoppage in U.S. meat exports to China. Given the latest report from the USDA, this does not seem to be the case.
The claim’s second assertion — that China would instead purchase beef from Canada and Brazil — is not impossible but unlikely.
China imposed retaliatory tariffs on Canada in March 2025 after the latter announced a 100% surtax on all Chinese-made electric vehicles starting on Oct. 1, 2024. Though the tariffs imposed by China did not include beef, the retaliatory action could indicate a cooling trade climate between the two nations.
China was the largest recipient of beef from Brazil in 2024. However, in March 2025, Reuters reported that Chinese customs was suspending imports from some factories in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.
Spanish-language meat industry sites named three Brazilian factories as having lost their registration. The suspensions were unexplained, according to reports, but followed a Chinese government investigation in late 2024 into oversupply that drove up domestic meat prices.
The U.S. exported $1.58 billion worth of beef to China in 2024, making China the third-largest market for U.S. beef exporters.
Beef claim sneaked into popular list of Trump administration effects on US farming
The claim seemed to have originated somewhere between Feb. 8 and Feb. 15. On Feb. 8, a Facebook user named Georgie Lea Smith posted (archived) a summary of claims about the effects of the Trump administration on farming. On Feb. 15, a popular Facebook post (archived) reposted Smith’s summary with an added bullet point: “China just canceled all USA beef and will buy from Canada and Brazil instead.” Social media users across Facebook and other platforms shared this exact text.
The Feb. 15 post included text from a separate named user, Dennis Hammac. However, a Google search using the text allegedly written by Hammac did not reveal a post on a profile with a matching name, instead bringing up only reposts of the text.
Smith’s Feb. 11 post did not include the bullet point about China “canceling” U.S. beef. It was not clear who added this bullet point to Smith’s text.
DeepL.com provided Chinese and Spanish translations for this article.
Sources:
Beef & Beef Products | USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. 7 Mar. 2025, https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/commodities/beef-beef-products.
Cash, Joe, et al. “China Hits Back at Canada with Fresh Agriculture Tariffs.” Reuters, 8 Mar. 2025, https://archive.ph/I5Dvs.
China: Exporter Alert – Lack of Response by China Customs on Establishment Registrations Creates Challenges for United States Protein Exports | USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. 25 Feb. 2025, https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/china-exporter-alert-lack-response-china-customs-establishment-registrations-creates.
Chu, Mei Mei. “China Investigates Beef Imports as Oversupply Squeezes Prices.” Reuters, 27 Dec. 2024, https://archive.ph/6NWNk.
Department of Finance Canada. “Surtax on Chinese-Made Electric Vehicles.” Government of Canada, 26 Aug. 2024, https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2024/08/surtax-on-chinese-made-electric-vehicles.html.
Dou, Lar. “China Just Cancelled All USA Beef and Will Buy from Canada and Brazil!! .” Facebook, 12 Mar. 2025, https://www.facebook.com/larry.dougherty.18/posts/pfbid02mzmp78k4LU8AAymvayGkrTWKVEQjfyuaRHpUzVckegP1xT5xnP2oDRchaMirLQQal.
Eurocarne. “Siete establecimientos cárnicos argentinos, uruguayos y brasileños pierden la autorización para exportar carne de vacuno a China.” https://eurocarne.com, 4 Mar. 2025, https://eurocarne.com/noticias/codigo/65853.
Ferreira, Cecilia. “China suspendió importaciones de carne de algunas plantas de Uruguay, Brasil y Argentina.” Blasina y Asociados, 3 Mar. 2025, https://blasinayasociados.com/china-suspendio-importaciones-de-carne-de-algunas-plantas-de-uruguay-brasil-y-argentina/.
Fitzpatrick, Shawn. “This from the US.” Facebook, 15 Feb. 2025, https://www.facebook.com/iNikonShawn/posts/pfbid028CvhDbDHxcoBuwdNNLhnx7U3EdWK7AfsoFrbsYzhC3D8gq6CU6T4Qe7c2H28GaVwl.
Google Search. https://www.google.com/search?q=%22We+have+a+%E2%80%9Cpresident%E2%80%9D+who+is+working+to+DESTROY+US+FARMERS.%22&rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB1138GB1138&oq=%22We+have+a+%E2%80%9Cpresident%E2%80%9D+who+is+working+to+DESTROY+US+FARMERS.%22&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBggAEEUYOzIGCAAQRRg7MgcIARAhGI8CMgcIAhAhGI8C0gEIMTQ1OWowajeoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
Green-Kent, Patti. “China Cancelled All Beef Contracts. Now Buying from Canada and Brazil.” Facebook, 1 Mar. 2025, https://www.facebook.com/pgreenkent/posts/pfbid0dCetVhGwMY9tuYfEYte6p6dEif3eTSZjShGK9f3e7nmXRaHhZoqc6xPV2Fd6mAivl.
“Imposing Duties to Address the Synthetic Opioid Supply Chain in the People’s Republic of China.” The White House, 1 Feb. 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/imposing-duties-to-address-the-synthetic-opioid-supply-chain-in-the-peoples-republic-of-china/.
jerasikehorn.bsky.social. “BREAKING: China Just Cancelled All USA Beef and Will Buy from Canada and Brazil….” Bluesky, 10 Mar. 2025, https://bsky.app/profile/jerasikehorn.bsky.social/post/3lk2lx3khqq2w.
@jfuller1212. “China Just Cancelled All USA Beef and Will Buy from Canada and Brazil !!” Threads, 6 Mar. 2025, https://www.threads.net/@jfuller1212/post/DG2oG1hS92H/china-just-cancelled-all-usa-beef-and-will-buy-from-canada-and-brazil-this-is-hu.
“Joint Statement on Investigation Regarding Bovine Meat Imports Announced by China.” Planalto, https://www.gov.br/planalto/en/latest-news/2024/12/joint-statement-on-investigation-regarding-bovine-meat-imports-announced-by-china. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
@KINGTRUMPUSLIAR. “Dear MAGA FARMERS.” X, 7 Mar. 2025, https://x.com/KINGTRUMPUSLIAR/status/1897856235740778640.
NAN, ZHONG. Countermeasures Taken to US’ Unilateral Tariff Hikes. https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202503/05/WS67c7271da310c240449d897b.html. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
Reuters. “China’s Customs Suspends the Import of Beef Products from Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.” Reuters, 3 Mar. 2025, https://archive.ph/sm3aY.
Smith, Georgie Lea. “EDIT: Wow! This Post Has Blown Up! .” Facebook, 8 Feb. 2025, https://www.facebook.com/georgie.l.smith.7/posts/pfbid02XRhsxtbzcS2FZzb8SkVBMUqyVKADDkRHWfUJEY5bSxdUt8Ttxt2mwUhY1smmA9R3l.
