US President Joe Biden is cracking down on the country’s largest meat producer, including pushing for stricter “Made in America” ??labelling rules, which may exacerbate tensions with US trading partners.

Biden’s push was announced by the White House on Monday before the president’s planned meeting with a group of independent and family-owned meat producers later on Monday.

The Biden administration pointed out that the excessive concentration of the US meat industry market is the main source of fragility in the country’s food supply chain and one of the reasons for high inflation. The White House said on Monday that only four companies control 85% of the beef market, 70% of the pork market, and 54% of the poultry market.

The White House stated: “Even if the farmers’ profit share is reduced, American consumers are still paying more – meat and poultry prices are now the single largest factor in the increase in the cost of food that people consume at home.” “And when such a large part is controlled. When there are too few companies in the market, our food supply chain is vulnerable to shocks,” it added.

The measures Biden announced on Monday included fiscal incentives, including grants, to increase the production capacity of independent meat processors, and measures to promote credit to small meat producers.

The White House also stated that it will advance stricter labeling standards for “Made in the United States” meat products, which will harm large producers and processors that rely on imports in the production process. This may exacerbate tensions with US meat exporters, who often complain about barriers to entry into the US market.

“According to the current labeling rules, if only processed in the United States, meat can be labeled as “Product of the United States”-including meat raised overseas, and then processed only into pieces of meat here. We believe this may lead to American consumers It’s hard to know what they got,” the White House said on Monday.

The reforms will also include the creation of a new online portal by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Agriculture to report violations of competition laws by the industry in order to curb the industry’s price monopoly. According to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the meat price index rose 16% year-on-year in November, while the overall consumer price index rose 6.8%.