Short Answer: Markets are complicated and full of hundreds of thousands of moving parts. For a very simple example related to beef - we could consider the import of Waygu beef since that’s a commodity you can’t make in the USA.
Obviously, there’s plenty of other beef products we import. Anyways yeah usually a country is exporting and importing the same stuff in some quantities when it comes to things like beef or pork or simple mechanical widgets or whatever. Just stuff that because of the quirks of supply and demand and logistics makes it so widgets are exported for sale and also sold domestically.
This, BTW, is why the deal with Argentina to import more beef will do nothing for prices. Argentinian farmers pretty much exclusively raise very high end free-range grass fed beef that sells for a very high sticker price. This might be good for, say, Michelin star New York restaurants, but it won’t help anyone out in the grocery store.
We’re number 4 for beef exports… Why are we importing it back?!?
Short Answer: Markets are complicated and full of hundreds of thousands of moving parts. For a very simple example related to beef - we could consider the import of Waygu beef since that’s a commodity you can’t make in the USA.
Obviously, there’s plenty of other beef products we import. Anyways yeah usually a country is exporting and importing the same stuff in some quantities when it comes to things like beef or pork or simple mechanical widgets or whatever. Just stuff that because of the quirks of supply and demand and logistics makes it so widgets are exported for sale and also sold domestically.
This, BTW, is why the deal with Argentina to import more beef will do nothing for prices. Argentinian farmers pretty much exclusively raise very high end free-range grass fed beef that sells for a very high sticker price. This might be good for, say, Michelin star New York restaurants, but it won’t help anyone out in the grocery store.
Because American beef is cheap garbage that even Americans don’t want to eat.