Law Office of Charles Benoit, https://xitter.cf/t.co/M7uBqNVSB5 Defending American producers' home market. @GeorgetownLaw alum. Whole world should buy local.
Sarasota, FL
Joined January 2011
- Tweets14.8K
- Following471
- Followers2.1K
- Likes78.1K
Pinned Tweet
DC needs to stop with the presumption that America's farmers and ranchers should be in unfettered price competition with the rest of the planet for their own home market 👇
6 years ago, a group of sheep producers reached out after the closing of a major US packing plant. At that time I sent a letter to former Vice President Mike Pence outlining the situation and asking for intervention. Cheap meat from other countries caused the lost revenue...in turn the shuttering of the plant.
3 years ago, again a group of us producers got together to make another run at this cheap imported meat. Hundreds of calls and thousands of hours later.... Yesterday was a culmination of the last 6 years.
We spent all day in a hearing room at the International Trade Commission in Washington DC. Making our arguments. 13 countries plus the EU filed to oppose the US Sheep Producers in our plea to slow the flow of this cheap product that is damaging our food supply.
Sheep ranchers from across the country on one side of the room.... and dozens of high priced attorneys, forign officials, Ivy league economists and corporate CEOs on the other.....
In 1999, 30% of the lamb in the US came from imports. Today, 79% of the lamb consumed in the US comes from imports.
The argument was injury.... how much forign pressure on a market constitutes injury to an industry. 20%, 30%, 50%, 79%..... When does injury begin.
I will say the case went well we believe.... but that said. I had a stunning realization as we say there....
US farmers and Ranchers.... sitting in a room.... full of folks from other countries.... arguing over who gets access to OUR own market first! For far too long our trade policy has been.... make sure Americans get "a fair shake" at their own market. Instead of America First and forign imports can fill whats left. This is the trade policy we want to see and the only safe future for our country. A country that canot feed itself, can't stay a sovereign nation. Food security is national security and we had better start giving it the attention it deserves.
.@RepGregSteube, a @WaysandMeansGOP Congressman, is one of the good ones on tariff policy.
But I'm afraid he's going to be disappointed in his request to USTR to develop an enforceable TRQ on specialty crops from 🇲🇽, which are currently duty-free.
USTR has two options to help here:
1⃣: initiate a 301 'unfair' trade action to deploy a legal authority to deploy a tariff/quota. This is USTR's statutory authority to increase tariffs. Back in 2022, the Florida Congressional delegation petitioned USTR for a 301. But USTR promptly declined.
2⃣: at the very least, withdraw USMCA duty-free concessions for the crops. This would restore the Column 1 tariffs (which aren't protective), and also allow the 10% Forced Labor 301 on MX to kick-in. Not protective, but also 'no work' for USTR and would be a nice gesture. But to-date, USTR has been unwilling to revisit the USMCA Concessions. Instead, it's focused on making new concessions for goods covered by Commerce's 232 or the Forced Labor 301.
Who knows, maybe we'll be surprised following the mid-terms. But I'm convinced that no matter what, Congress is going to have to get back in to the tariff setting business. Simply has to happen.
Charles Benoit retweeted
A husband and wife with four kids will spend $3-4,000 and more per month on medical insurance now, and it buys nothing but the right to pay more when you actually use it. This is an outrage. More outrageous, there is hardly any political talk about this fixing this problem even though the fix is readily at hand. Unsustainable.
Charles Benoit retweeted
The collision of Free Trade theory and National Security reality
Palmer Luckey warns that the Pentagon’s reliance on Chinese-owned Lenovo laptops would have been unimaginable during the Cold War: “It wouldn’t have even been believable as fiction.” 🇺🇸🇨🇳
“It would’ve been unthinkable. It wouldn’t have been believable as fiction. And yet that’s what happens today.
Our largest laptop manufacturer for the Pentagon is Lenovo, which is owned by China.
Their headquarters has a flagpole with the Chinese Communist Party flag, and then the Lenovo logo underneath it.
It’s nuts.
I’d say one more thing about why we’re not beating China.”
Who would’ve thought in 2026 we’d still be pressing an issue of overreliance on strategic adversaries for critical technology used in our most defensible sector.
Charles Benoit retweeted
Credit to NASA, they're really trying to set up their lunar lander partners for success.
arstechnica.com/space/2026/1…
Charles Benoit retweeted
In 1980 the lamb and sheep population in America was approximately 15 million… today we are at 4.8 million. To rely on foreign imports for food security is dangerous, yet we import 75% of Lamb for consumption today. Lamb and sheep producers deserve better… demand American Lamb!
American sheep producers raise world-class lamb and wool. We’re fighting to keep those family operations strong. 🐑🇺🇸
Just met with the American Sheep Industry Association and ranchers from across the country to hear directly about the pressures facing their livelihoods.
U.S. lamb imports surged nearly 45% between 2020 and 2024, capturing roughly 70% of the American market.
At @USDA, we’re focused on strengthening domestic flocks, expanding grazing opportunities, and helping producers sell more American lamb and wool.
God bless our incredible American sheep ranchers.
Trade deficit reduction is a terrible goal, because it can be achieved in many ways that do nothing to help Americans.
For example, customs fraud (under valuation), energy exports, scrap metal exports, etc.
We have a giant market. We should be focused on chasing economic self-reliance. "Import substitution", as the development economists call it.
"American producers, whether farmers, manufacturers or miners, are entitled to the home market, as against competing foreign producers. An adequate Tariff gives them that market."
- American Economist, Oct. 23, 1925
Charles Benoit retweeted
Half the town is trying to smear every GOP hill staffer as a groyper and the other half is trying to put them in jail.
The kids, though? They're doing just fine.
“A few thousand experienced and competent staffers are the bedrock of any political movement.”
Ten years ago, MAGA had no one in Washington D.C. except President Trump. Today, there are thousands. Ten years from now there will be thousands more. Will you be one of them?
semafor.com/article/10/21/20…
Charles Benoit retweeted
.@RepCarbajal asks @SecMullinDHS important questions about enforcing federal law on ships exploiting the Political Jones Act Waiver.
Are foreign companies properly reporting and paying federal taxes? Are vessel owners complying with immigration restrictions on foreign crew members? Are they meeting labor requirements? How about following America’s environmental regulations?
Read more: gcaptain.com/jones-act-waive…
Charles Benoit retweeted
I can’t believe how much the US is reliant on foreign mills for metals.
Without DFARS or even South Africa, America is getting no where close to metal production required to meet domestic demands.
Gonna need more mills. I’ve never seen anything like this!
Charles Benoit retweeted
6 years ago, a group of sheep producers reached out after the closing of a major US packing plant. At that time I sent a letter to former Vice President Mike Pence outlining the situation and asking for intervention. Cheap meat from other countries caused the lost revenue...in turn the shuttering of the plant.
3 years ago, again a group of us producers got together to make another run at this cheap imported meat. Hundreds of calls and thousands of hours later.... Yesterday was a culmination of the last 6 years.
We spent all day in a hearing room at the International Trade Commission in Washington DC. Making our arguments. 13 countries plus the EU filed to oppose the US Sheep Producers in our plea to slow the flow of this cheap product that is damaging our food supply.
Sheep ranchers from across the country on one side of the room.... and dozens of high priced attorneys, forign officials, Ivy league economists and corporate CEOs on the other.....
In 1999, 30% of the lamb in the US came from imports. Today, 79% of the lamb consumed in the US comes from imports.
The argument was injury.... how much forign pressure on a market constitutes injury to an industry. 20%, 30%, 50%, 79%..... When does injury begin.
I will say the case went well we believe.... but that said. I had a stunning realization as we say there....
US farmers and Ranchers.... sitting in a room.... full of folks from other countries.... arguing over who gets access to OUR own market first! For far too long our trade policy has been.... make sure Americans get "a fair shake" at their own market. Instead of America First and forign imports can fill whats left. This is the trade policy we want to see and the only safe future for our country. A country that canot feed itself, can't stay a sovereign nation. Food security is national security and we had better start giving it the attention it deserves.
Charles Benoit retweeted
libertarians will look at this and say, with no trace of humility or doubt in their eyes, that trading industrial production for service sector vaporware is the path to prosperity and national strength.
Charles Benoit retweeted
Assuming these are all plastic, there isn’t a meaningful cost savings to using a simpler undercarriage.
You save money on the mold but not the cost of running it.
With Hot Wheels volume, the mold costs don’t matter. The part volume is so high, that they get amortized to zero.
It’s just lame and lazy work from Mattel.
That said, I feel for them. Fewer kids means fewer sales and, unlike Lego, it’s not so easy to start selling Hot Wheels to adults.
This quoted post is unavailable.
Great to see @SecretaryBurgum celebrating fresh primary aluminum imports, we desperately need new supply.
There doesn't seem to be any prospect of the new Oklahoma aluminum smelter coming online, sadly. So many headwinds, and no power deal.
Cabinet should come together and have a frank conversation about how aluminum smelting is no longer something private capital will take on. (Thanks, globalism!)
To the extent foreign SOE smelters haven't completely displaced private operators, those operators now requires governments as partners, especially for long term stable power pricing.
Everyone involved with aluminum policy should watch @cboydwg's recent interview on the Dirty Scrap podcast, where he methodically covers how screwed up the situation in aluminum is: youtube.com/watch?v=bfXAUy82…
Okay some more context on my previous post:
Canada's 🚗 quota (49,000 EVs at 6.1% tariff, then 106.1% over-quota tariff after that) is the "managed" trade approach, whereas the US's 15% on unlimited cars from EU, JP, KR is not.
I think all global automakers will be watching how Canadians respond to Tesla's active marketing of quota-allocation very closely.
For automakers, they want to know:
(1) can most consumers be trained to wait for quota allotment refills? ; or,
(2) does going half the year without inventory on a category lead to mass brand defection?
Canadians getting familiar with managed-trade, as @Tesla announces that the base Model 3 trim, sourced from 🇨🇳, is sold out until the next quota allotment, six months away.
Would love to be inside the OEM HQs as they monitor and digest this.
Charles Benoit retweeted
Beef packing plants have closed. Regional cattle buyers have disappeared. Workers have lost jobs, and cattle producers are dealing with the loss of nearby markets.
While packers may maintain national production by shifting slaughter to other facilities, that does nothing to restore the local buyers and competitive markets cattle producers have lost. Fewer buyers mean fewer bids, while longer hauls, delayed deliveries and rising costs put additional pressure on independent producers.
R-CALF USA is calling for an immediate investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Justice into packing plant closures, purchasing decisions and their impact on competition. A closure alone does not establish unlawful conduct, but regulators must investigate promptly and enforce the law when its requirements are met.
Independent cattle producers need action now, before today's lost outlets become tomorrow's permanent loss of ranches, feedlots and rural opportunities.
Watch 📺: Cattle Markets Are Disappearing. Washington Must Act.