U.S. lifts tariffs on select imports from Ecuador, Argentina, Guatemala, and El Salvador

Some tariffs on foods and other imports from Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala, and El Salvador will be removed under framework agreements that give U.S. firms greater market access, the United States said on Thursday.

The agreements are expected to help lower prices for coffee, bananas and other foodstuffs, a senior Trump administration official told reporters, adding the administration expected U.S. retailers to pass on the positive effects to American consumers.

The framework deals with most of the four countries should be finalised within the next two weeks, the official said, with additional agreements seen as possible before the end of the year.

Officials in Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala and Ecuador welcomed the deals.

The framework agreements announced on Thursday would maintain 10% tariffs on most goods from El Salvador, Guatemala and Argentina, where the U.S. had modest trade surpluses, and 15% for imports from Ecuador, where the U.S. had a trade deficit.

But they will result in the removal of U.S. tariffs on a number of items that are not grown, mined or produced in the United States, the official said, listing as examples bananas and coffee from Ecuador.

Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said the deal framework would "create the conditions" to boost U.S. investment in Argentina, thanking Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei for his "conviction" around the agreement.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, another outspoken Trump ally, shared the announcement on X, captioning it "friends." 

Bukele's Guatemalan counterpart, Bernardo Arevalo, said the deal was good news for Guatemala's economy. The agreement "places us as an even more competitive and more attractive country for investment," Arevalo said in a video on social media.

The government of Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa, who has allied himself closely with the Trump administration on anti-narcotics and migration efforts, also cheered the deal, saying in a statement on social media that it would boost the country's export sector. 

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