President Trump has inked framework agreements with four South and Central American countries to remove trade barriers on some products, including meat.
“The deals will help US farmers, ranchers, fishermen, small businesses, and manufacturers to increase US exports to, and expand business opportunities with, these trading partners,” the White House said in a statement, referring to agreements with Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador and Ecuador.
For Argentina, the provisional trade deal will include poultry, meat and dairy.
“Argentina has opened its market to US live cattle, committed to allow market access for US poultry within one year, and agreed not to restrict market access for products that use certain cheese and meat terms,” the White House said.
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The statement added that the two countries “intend to work together to address non-tariff barriers affecting trade in food and agricultural products”.
However, as part of the initial framework, a reciprocal tariff of 10% will stay on goods imported from Argentina, Guatemala and El Salvador, as will a 15% tax on imports from Ecuador into the US, according to Politico.
However, in a statement seen by Politico, a senior administration official said the deal with Argentina is expected to exempt beef from the 10% tariff on its imports.
The official said: “These are exactly the kind of deals the President is trying to strike to help balance out our trade deficits. In the near term, I think we’re just going to let the market figure out how much beef it needs.”
The White House added in a separate statement outlining the individual frameworks that Ecuador is “reforming its import licensing and facility registration systems for food and agricultural products to enhance transparency and predictability and reduce onerous and unnecessary barriers to US agricultural exports”.
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By GlobalDataEcuador has also “committed to ensuring that market access will not be restricted due to the mere use of certain cheese and meat terms”.
Guatemala, meanwhile, has pledged to “address and prevent barriers to US agricultural products in its market, including with regard to US regulatory oversight and acceptance of currently agreed certificates issued by US regulatory authorities”, according to another of the White House statements.
Similarly, El Salvador provisionally agreed to “address and prevent barriers to US agricultural products in its market, including with regard to US regulatory oversight and acceptance of currently agreed certificates issued by US regulatory authorities”.
The White House said it will work toward finalising the agreements with the four countries in the “coming weeks”.
