Milei: “I want to thank Trump for reaching an agreement on the Argentine beef quota”
He added: “This is just one of the trade agreements that Argentine and the United States have owed each other for many years, and which both countries are working to rectify”.
At the moment, the beef export industry has no official confirmation of the agreement. Fernando Herrera, president of the Argentine Association of Exporting Producers (APEA), told that “for now, we only have the announcement from the two presidents; it’s unknown whether it will be a permanent or temporary quota”.
The executive also noted that they do not know "whether it will have a 10% tariff or be tariff-free and it remains to be defined how it will be administered, that is, whether there is a distribution among exporters or if it is for those who request it".
Currently, our country has an annual quota of 20,000 tons with zero tariff to the United States and if this projection is fulfilled, it will increase to 80,000 tons per year, a figure that at current values would represent an additional foreign exchange income of USD 300 million.
Beyond the statements made by Presidents Trump and Milei, at the time of writing there is no official confirmation regarding the opening of this quota. Official data in the United States shows that in 2024 they imported 33,000 tons of beef from Argentine, representing 2% of their total imports.
With this decision, President Trump aims to reduce retail prices of beef in supermarkets, which according to the United States government have reached record levels, stemming from a marked shortage of cattle, with consumers not letting up on demand.
While 80,000 tons is an attractive volume for the Argentine market, it's worth considering two points raised by Argentine analysts. First, with the local livestock sector remaining stable-without growth in production figures-generating a surplus for the United States would not be easy if this quota were opened. At this point, one possible scenario is that export destinations would be diverted, and exports would have to be cut to other countries to fulfill these shipments.
Meanwhile, Trump announced that these imports were intended to lower meat prices in the United States. A quick look at US statistics reveals that this intention is at odds with reality.
According to data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), beef consumption projections in that country are 13.1 million tons, with an estimated production of 12.1 million tons.
Divided by the country's population—approximately 340 million people-per capita meat consumption per year is about 38 kilos. Therefore, the 80,000 tons per year that Argentina would export would not even cover 1% of US consumption and would have no impact on retail prices.
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