Trump is right that other countries impose outrageous tariffs on American exports. Is there a path to reciprocal low or zero rates? We wouldn't count Trump out. One possibility would
be to start immediately with a zero-zero trade agreement with Argentina, which the country’s President Javier Milei has reportedly proposed.
As the chart above shows (click on the image to expand it) products that are at the core of the American economy, such as dairy products, meat and cars are charged tariffs anywhere from 212% (Canada on American dairy), to 44% (Canada on American meat), to 154% (Japan on American rice).
Our friends at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, who are no friends of tariffs, furnished us with the chart, noting that a zero-zero trade agreement with Argentina would knock our other trading partners off their high horse.
And President Milei may be just the partner President Donald Trump needs to start the zero-zero reciprocal trade deals going.
Milei said he will seek a free trade agreement with the United States while meeting with businesspeople during his visit to Washington DC for President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
And just a month after President Trump's inauguration Milei took his pitch for a free trade accord with the US to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) where he appeared to great acclaim as he gave Elon Musk a chainsaw commemorating Musk's effort to cut government waste through DOGE.
“I want to take this chance to announce that Argentina wants to be the first country in the world to join this reciprocal accord that the Trump administration proposed on trade matters,” Milei said. “If we were not restricted by Mercosur, Argentina would already be working on a mutually beneficial free trade deal with the United States.”
Trump praised Milei in a speech at CPAC that was then followed by a meeting that could open the door to such an agreement.
Then just a week later, when asked by a reporter from Argentina’s La Nación newspaper, Trump said, “I consider anything. And Argentina — I think he’s [Milei] great, by the way — I think he’s a great leader. He’s doing a great job. He’s doing a fantastic job. He brought it back [Argentina] from oblivion. Yeah, we’ll look at things.”
If an agreement could be reached with Argentina it could also open the door to a zero-zero tariff deal with the Latin American trading bloc Mercosur, of which Argentina is a member.
Milei, who currently occupies Mercosur’s rotating chairmanship, has been highly critical of the trade bloc throughout his career as both a television fixture and politician — often describing it as a “bad idea” and as an “imperfect customs union,” reported Breitbart
But, if a zero-zero tariff agreement is in the offing, American and Argentinian trade and diplomatic officials are keeping mum about it.
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tariffs
Argentina
foreign tariffs
agricultural products
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If other countries are not willing to agree to a zero to zero trade agreement, do we really need to trade with them. The time has come for the US to say enough to being screwed by the countries we share trade agreements with.