WASHINGTON: The United States announced Thursday it will eliminate tariffs on some food and other imports from Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador as part of framework agreements that will give American companies greater access to those markets.
The deals are expected to help lower prices for coffee, bananas and other foods, a senior Trump administration official told reporters, adding that the administration expects U.S. retailers to pass on the positive effects to American consumers.
Framework agreements with most of the four countries should be finalized within the next two weeks, the official said, with additional agreements considered possible before the end of the year.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett said on Wednesday that the US planned some “substantial” announcements in the coming days that would lead to lower prices for coffee, bananas and other fruits as part of the Trump administration’s push to lower the cost of living for Americans.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira discussed a framework for a US-Brazil trade relationship in a meeting this week, the US State Department said Thursday.
Brazil is the world’s largest producer and exporter of coffee, but its exports to the US face a crushing 50% tariff imposed by US President Donald Trump.
Trump has focused heavily on the issue of affordability after a series of losses for Republican candidates in last week’s election, while insisting that any higher costs were caused by policies enacted by former President Joe Biden rather than his own sweeping tariffs.
Democratic wins in New Jersey, New York and Virginia, driven in part by cost-of-living concerns, revealed growing anxiety among voters about high prices, which economists say has been fueled in part by the import tariffs Trump has imposed on nearly every country.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that the Trump administration is considering further tariff exemptions on imported food products such as beef and citrus fruits to ease prices, including from countries that do not have trade deals with the US. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the story.
US officials have had “quite constructive” talks with other Central and South American countries and could seal more trade deals before the end of the year, the official said, adding that trade talks with Switzerland and Taiwan on Thursday were also quite positive.
Officials in Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala and Ecuador welcomed the deals.
The framework deals announced Thursday would maintain 10 percent tariffs on most goods from El Salvador, Guatemala and Argentina, where the U.S. ran modest trade surpluses, and 15 percent on imports from Ecuador, where the U.S. ran a trade deficit.
However, they will lead to the removal of US tariffs on some items that are not grown, mined or produced in the United States, the official said, citing bananas and coffee from Ecuador as examples.
The deals, similar to those announced with Asian countries in October, included pledges to refrain from digital services taxes on US companies, along with lifting tariffs on US agricultural and industrial goods, the official said.
“With all these deals, the ones in Asia, the ones we’re announcing today, we’re keeping the tariffs, giving some tariff relief on some products or goods, but at the same time we’re opening up foreign markets in ways that weren’t open before,” the official said.
Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said the deal’s framework would “create the conditions” to boost US investment in Argentina, thanking Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Millay for his “conviction” around the deal.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, another staunch Trump ally, shared the announcement on X, writing the caption “friends.” His ambassador to Washington, Milena Mayorga, celebrated the decision, adding that the two “sister nations” had “rebuilt their relationship on the basis of trust and self-determination”.
Bukele’s Guatemalan counterpart, Bernardo Arevalo, said the deal was good news for the Guatemalan economy. The deal “positions us as an even more competitive and attractive country for investment,” Arevalo said in a video on social media.
The government of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, who has been closely allied with the Trump administration on anti-drug and anti-immigration efforts, also welcomed the deal, saying in a statement on social media that it would boost the country’s export sector. Ecuador is a major exporter of bananas and shrimp, as well as oil.
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