Argentina and the United States signed an additional protocol on Wednesday that, Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said, lets their trade agreement go to Argentina’s Congress, hours after President Milei landed in Washington.
Quirno signed it with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. It is an addition to the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade and Investment, known by its Spanish acronym ARTI, which the two governments signed in February. In a post on X, Quirno said the protocol “consolidates predictability” for Argentine exports and that the United States “reaffirms its commitment to most-favored-nation tariff treatment” for Argentine products on the agreed terms, meaning Argentine goods are charged no more than the rate given to other US trading partners. He added that Washington “recognizes that Argentina has complied with the commitments it assumed.”
Quirno said exports to the US reached US$6.57 billion from January to August, up 35% from a year earlier, and that the US quota for Argentine beef rose fivefold, from 20,000 to 100,000 tons. In return, Argentina has committed to cut tariffs on US goods.
The next step is in Argentina’s Congress. Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza, holds 95 of 257 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 20 of 72 in the Senate, so a vote depends on allies from PRO and Provincias Unidas, and the ordinary session ends in November.
Milei’s plane landed at Joint Base Andrews, in Maryland, at 8:41 a.m. local time on his latest trip to the United States, a visit of about 36 hours from Wednesday morning to Thursday evening. He travels with Quirno and his sister Karina Milei, the secretary general of the presidency, and Ambassador Alec Oxenford joined the delegation. No meeting with President Trump is planned.
On Wednesday he was scheduled to meet Andy Kleinman, an Argentine investor in technology and entertainment, and Harold Hamm, founder of the US oil producer Continental Resources. In the evening he is to receive a leadership award and give a speech at the Hispanic Heritage Month gala at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, near the White House, organized by Latino Wall Street and La Derecha Diario.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro, is among the gala guests and Milei is due to cross paths with him. Eduardo lives in the US and cannot return to Brazil because of a Supreme Court order. His brother Flávio, whom Milei has backed, faces President Lula in Brazil’s October 25 runoff.
On Thursday morning Milei speaks at the US Chamber of Commerce on “The Argentine case: the challenge of economic growth after decades of populism” and receives its Global Champion of Free Enterprise award, after remarks by Energy Secretary Chris Wright. He then attends an event on fighting antisemitism at the Argentine embassy, and flies home Thursday night, due in Buenos Aires on Friday morning.
