Washington Presses Argentina to Ratify the US Trade Agreement

Argentina · TRADE

Signed in February, the Argentina trade agreement still has no legal force in either country.

Washington has asked Buenos Aires to put the Argentina trade agreement before Congress. Deputy United States Trade Representative Jeff Goettman made the request in person on 27 August 2026.

What Washington actually asked for

Jeff Goettman, the deputy United States Trade Representative, met Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno and Economy Minister Luis Caputo. The meeting took place in Buenos Aires on 27 August 2026, during a regional trip that also covered Chile.

A United States Embassy statement said Washington would keep honouring its commitments under the accord. It added that the Argentine government had made significant progress on its own side.

No press release on the visit appears on the United States Trade Representative website for August 2026. The request therefore reached the public through Argentine officials and that embassy statement.

There is no signed American document setting a deadline for a vote. That distinction matters, because the accord itself fixes no date for either side to move.

What the Argentina trade agreement contains

Ambassador Jamieson Greer and Quirno signed the accord in Washington on 5 February 2026. Its formal name is the United States-Argentina Agreement on Reciprocal Trade and Investment, or ARTI.

It followed a joint framework the two governments published on 13 November 2025. The text runs to six sections, three annexes and two tariff schedules.

Section one covers tariffs and quotas, and section two covers non-tariff barriers. Later sections deal with digital trade, economic security, investment and enforcement.

Article 6.7 says the accord enters into force 60 days after both sides exchange written notifications. Those notifications must certify that each party has completed its applicable legal procedures.

What Argentina gives in return

Argentina’s schedule removes duties on 221 tariff lines the moment the accord takes effect. Twenty further lines, mostly auto parts, drop to two percent.

The schedule also opens duty-free quotas that drew little attention at signature. The largest is 80,000 tonnes of United States beef in calendar 2026, in four quarterly tranches.

Smaller quotas cover 10,000 motor vehicles, 1,000 tonnes of cheese and 1,100 tonnes of prepared potatoes. There are also 870 tonnes of shelled almonds and 80,000 litres of bottled wine.

Argentina further agrees to accept United States standards, conformity assessments and Food and Drug Administration approvals. It promises to fast-track American mining projects under the Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones, or RIGI.

Argentina’s import duties are a small part of a July tax take of 22.97 trillion pesos (US$15.19 billion). The conversion uses the Banco Central de la República Argentina A3500 rate of 1,512.00 pesos per dollar on 28 August 2026.

What Buenos Aires was promised

The United States side removes its reciprocal tariff on 1,675 Argentine tariff positions. The government in Buenos Aires valued the reactivated exports at about US$1.01 billion.

Separately, a presidential proclamation of 6 February 2026 added 80,000 tonnes to Argentina’s beef quota. Duty-free access rose fivefold, from 20,000 to 100,000 tonnes for that year.

Quirno put the extra beef sales at roughly US$800 million. The two 80,000-tonne figures are a coincidence of drafting, and they point in opposite directions.

Steel and aluminium were left out of the Argentina trade agreement entirely. Both kept the 50 percent United States duty imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act.

Quirno said on 6 February 2026 that Washington had shown explicit political will to review those duties. No change to the steel or aluminium rates has been published since.

Does Congress have to vote at all

The Argentine Constitution gives Congress the power to approve or reject treaties concluded with other nations. Article 75 places that power in the legislature, and the president then ratifies.

The executive can still act alone on parts of the package. Officials said in February that some items would move by decree and others by administrative resolution.

Tariff changes on Mercosur nomenclature lines are made by decree in Argentine practice. The treaty commitments, and the intellectual property conventions behind them, are the part that needs a law.

Deputies approved accession to the Patent Cooperation Treaty on 27 August 2026 by 147 votes to 93. They attached a reservation on Chapter Two, which sends the bill back to the Senate.

That vote is the closest thing to visible progress so far. The accord itself has still not been sent to either chamber.

The arithmetic in both chambers

La Libertad Avanza holds 95 of the 257 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Fuerza Patria, the main Peronist bloc, holds 93, and a simple majority needs 129.

The government therefore depends on Provincias Unidas with 18 seats and PRO with 12. The Unión Cívica Radical has six, and about a dozen small blocs hold the rest.

In the 72-seat Senate the ruling party has 20 members. Fuerza Patria has 28, the Unión Cívica Radical nine and PRO six, with provincial parties holding the remainder.

The calendar is crowded before any Argentina trade agreement bill arrives. Javier Milei must send the 2027 budget to Congress by 15 September, and a labour reform is still moving.

The Senate is also handling a companies law, a wider investment regime and electoral changes. Cabinet Chief Diego Santilli is rebuilding relations with the governors whose deputies decide most votes.

The Mercosur problem nobody has settled

Argentina belongs to Mercosur, a customs union built on a common external tariff. Decision 32/00 of its Common Market Council requires members to negotiate with third countries jointly.

Brazil raised the point formally at a Common Market Group meeting in March 2026. Its delegation asked that Argentine concessions stay inside the national list of exceptions to that tariff.

Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira returned to the theme at the bloc’s summit in Luque, Paraguay. He said on 29 June 2026 that new perforations of the common external tariff weaken the union.

Brazil has not filed a formal dispute or proposed sanctions in any published document. The objection is diplomatic so far, and no Mercosur body has ruled on the accord.

Why the pressure is real this time

The United States Supreme Court struck down the reciprocal tariffs on 20 February 2026. It held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not authorise them.

That ruling removed the legal basis for the main concession Buenos Aires had been promised. Washington leaned on a temporary authority for 150 days while it built a replacement.

From 24 July 2026 the United States applied a 10 percent tariff to Argentine goods under Section 301. The action preserved more than 1,600 exemptions negotiated in the accord.

Trade has grown regardless. Argentine exports to the United States reached US$5.97 billion between January and July 2026, a rise of 38 percent.

Imports from the United States were US$3.97 billion, leaving a surplus of US$2.00 billion. The comparable 2025 surplus was US$226 million, on figures from the statistics institute INDEC.

Ratification would lock those terms into a treaty rather than a revocable executive action. That is the practical case Washington is making for the Argentina trade agreement.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• ustr.gov
• ustr.gov
• ar.usembassy.gov
• ar.usembassy.gov
• www.cancilleria.gob.ar
• www.infobae.com
• www.iprofesional.com
• www.perfil.com
• www.cronista.com
• www.parlamentario.com
• www.infobae.com
• www.diariodecuyo.com.ar
• www.ambito.com
• www.infobae.com
• eleconomista.com.ar
• www.lanacion.com.ar
• www.infobae.com
• www.ambito.com
• www.ambito.com
• chequeado.com
• www.ellitoral.com
• www.eleco.com.ar
• api.bcra.gob.ar

This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error