The trade agreements Argentina signed with the United States and the European Union — the latter as part of Mercosur — in 2026 are starting to deliver what they promised: a rise in exports to those markets.
In the U.S. case, Argentina and Washington signed the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade and Investment (ARTI) on February 5, 2026.
Unlike the deal with the European Union, ARTI is not a free trade agreement. It does, however, remove reciprocal tariffs on 1,675 Argentine products, mostly from agro-industrial and manufacturing sectors.
“While that agreement has not formally entered into force, it also included an increase in the U.S. import quota for Argentine beef,” the think tank Fundación Mediterránea said in a report.
The beef numbers bear that out. In the first six months of 2026, Argentine sales of frozen beef to the U.S. jumped 175%, worth an extra US$193 million. Chilled beef exports rose 122%, or US$48 million.
