Washington — The Trump administration has reached frameworks for reciprocal trade agreements with Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador and Ecuador, the White House announced Thursday, although details of the frameworks are still emerging.
The tariff rate for most goods from Guatemala, El Salvador and Argentina will continue to be 10%, while Ecuador will remain at 15%, senior administration officials told reporters on a briefing call. But there will be tariff relief on a number of items, particularly those that can’t be grown in the U.S. Senior administration officials didn’t list those items, nor do the joint statements about the frameworks released by the White House, but one senior administration official anticipated that coffee and bananas from Ecuador, for instance, would see tariff relief.
“The United States commits to remove its reciprocal tariffs on certain qualifying exports from Ecuador that cannot be grown, mined, or naturally produced in the United States in sufficient quantities,” the framework joint statement for Ecuador released by the White House says.
Senior administration officials couldn’t provide details on how the trade agreements would affect the cost of goods like coffee, cocoa or bananas, which the U.S. imports from Central and South American nations, although one senior administration official said it would likely have “positive” effects.
Those specific commodities are important because “we don’t make those in the United States,” the official said.
“Our expectation is that there will be some positive effects for prices for things like coffee, cocoa, bananas,” the official said.
The White House said the administration will work to finalize the agreements in the coming weeks.
Senior administration officials said the agreement frameworks are largely focused on allowing those foreign markets to accept more U.S. goods. Generally, the agreements also aim to open up markets to import U.S. agricultural products, and to prohibit imposing digital services taxes on U.S. companies.
The U.S. has reached trade deals of some nature with the European Union, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea, the United Kingdom, among other countries.