President Donald Trump said Friday that his administration will temporarily permit additional beef imports into the United States without triggering higher tariffs, a move that promptly drew criticism from cattle producers and conservative Republicans from rural states.

The announcement comes as beef prices have climbed to record highs, driven by a shrinking U.S. cattle supply, consistent consumer demand, and limits on cattle from Mexico, where the animals are facing a flesh-eating pest. The president has also imposed 50% tariffs on Brazil, a major beef exporter. The herd contraction took hold as drought and high feed costs in recent years led ranchers to cull animals faster than they replaced them, and rebuilding a herd is a multiyear process given the time it takes to raise breeding cattle to maturity.

Trump remains under pressure to cut costs and address affordability concerns ahead of November's midterm elections. Ranchers, normally among the president's biggest supporters, are currently enjoying rare profitable years and worry that cheap beef imports will reduce cattle prices — and with them, the incentive to increase herd sizes.

"We all want lower grocery prices, but as I've said for months, we cannot do it at the expense of American producers," Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said in a statement. "Flooding the market with foreign beef hurts our livestock industry and undermines the long-term solution: growing the U.S. cattle herd to meet demand."

Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., wrote in a social media post just hours after Trump's announcement that the president's "heart is in the right place," but that importing beef will "harm our ranching families who feed the nation."

Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., said that while he appreciates the administration's focus on grocery prices, "short term policy shifts do not equal long term solutions."

According to Trump, the deal allows up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to be imported into the U.S. over the next 90 days without activating an "out of quota" tariff — a tax that goes into effect once a certain quantity of a product enters the country.

The president said on social media that he had committed to ensuring the imported beef would be sold at 25% below current market rates, making it cheaper for American consumers. A White House official said the deal is with foreign beef exporters who have agreed to the discount on beef.

"You don't put America first by putting U.S. cattle producers last," U.S. Cattlemen's Association President Justin Tupper said in a statement. "This move will weaken our markets and gamble with food safety in the process."

Colin Woodall, CEO of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, said in a statement that the president's announcement and other market interventions sacrifice "long-term stability for short term messaging."

Glynn Tonsor, a professor at Kansas State University who focuses on the cattle and beef industry, said he would like to see more details about the latest deal but that his immediate assessment was that it would not have a big effect on prices. That is because 300,000 metric tons amounts to roughly 3% of what Americans eat yearly — the equivalent of about 660 million pounds — he said. "The relative magnitude we are talking about is pretty small."

David Anderson, a professor of agricultural economics at Texas A&M University, said he was skeptical that other countries could redirect so much beef to the U.S. in such a short time period. "Is that even achievable?" he questioned in a phone interview.

The White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a plan that has yet to be finalized, said the beef in question is lean beef trimmings that are used for ground beef production. Lean trimmings are a product the United States has long imported, because domestic trimmings tend to run fattier and processors blend the two to make ground beef. Trump plans to sign an executive order formalizing the directive within two weeks, the official said. The administration made a push last year to buy more beef from Argentina to try to bring down prices.

The president said Friday that his plan would help grow the U.S. cattle supply, which is the smallest it has been in decades — the lowest level since the early 1950s, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. Some ranchers and experts said the opposite effect was more likely.

"Imports have been a major contributor to the decline in the U.S. cattle inventory," said Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF USA, which represents independent cattle producers. "Using more imports today will exacerbate that decline and will prevent herd expansion."

As the order is drafted, the questions experts have already raised — including which countries will supply the beef and how the 25% discount will be enforced — remain unresolved.

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Associated Press writers Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta contributed to this report.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.