The main purpose of the article is an attempt to assess the competitiveness of European Union trade in foreign trade in beef products in 2017 compared to 2005. In order to achieve the objective of the study, a comparative analysis (for exports, import value, balance of foreign trade in beef products, the index of revealed comparative advantage of RCA, the comparative advantage of Lafay and the Grubel-Llyod indicator) was used. In 2005 and 2017, the following countries had a comparative advantage in trade in beef products: Austria, France, Ireland, Luxembourg and Poland. Those which did not have a comparative advantage: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Malta, Spain, Sweden, Portugal and Great Britain. In 2017, most EU countries implemented the intra-industry trade model. In 2017, compared to 2005, some EU countries changed their trade model from inter-industry to intra-industry or vice versa. In 2017, Poland was fifth among the largest EU exporters of beef products in the EU, and the share of beef products imported to Poland in the import of beef products of EU countries was very low (and amounted to about 1%).