The White House on Thursday announced new trade agreements with four South and Central American countries, which could lead to lower duties on some coffee and banana imports, as well as beef from Argentina.
“These are exactly the kind of deals the president is trying to strike to help balance out our trade deficits,” said a senior administration official, granted anonymity to share details of the deal.
The official said the deal with Argentina is expected to exempt beef from the 10 percent tariff on its imports. But the trade agreement does not appear to change the U.S. quota expanding the amount of beef Argentina can export to the U.S., a proposal President Donald Trump floated earlier this fall that drew fierce backlash from Republicans in Congress and the U.S. cattle industry.
“In the near term, I think we’re just going to let the market figure out how much beef it needs,” the official said.
