The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) asked the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”) on July 13, 2026, to launch a Section 201 global safeguard investigation into lamb meat imports after domestic sheep producers filed a petition last year with the USTR.
In his letter to the ITC, USTR Jamieson Greer called on the ITC to determine whether foreign lamb meat has been imported “in such increased quantities as to be a substantial cause of serious injury, or the threat thereof, to the domestic industry.” The imports targeted are fresh, chilled, and frozen lamb meat. He added that recent information suggests that lamb meat is significantly undersold in the domestic market and that “firms have exited the domestic industry entirely, and there have been domestic industry job losses, decreased capacity utilization rates, and struggles to maintain profitability.”
On October 31, 2025, the American Sheep Industry Association (“ASI”) petitioned the USTR to request the ITC probe. In a statement lauding USTR’s decision, the group said that it filed the case on behalf of 42 state associations and more than 100,000 U.S. sheep farm and ranches. According to the group, U.S. lamb imports grew nearly 45 percent between 2020 and 2024, capturing “roughly 70 percent of the domestic market … at prices averaging 10.8 percent below domestic product, with some pricing gaps approaching 19.5 percent.”
Under Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974, the ITC makes injury determinations within 120 days of receiving a request to open an investigation. If an affirmative ruling is found, the ITC must recommend a remedy to the president, such as tariffs or quotas.