Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that the U.S. will offer financial support to Argentina to prop up its ailing economy, prompting frustration from soybean producers, for whom Argentina is a key competitor.

Following a meeting between Bessent, President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, Trump was effusive in his support of Milei and offered a full-throated endorsement ahead of the country’s legislative elections next month.

“Javier Milei is a very good friend, fighter, and WINNER,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding he has Trump’s “Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election as President.”

On Wednesday, Bessent outlined a raft of measures to support the Argentine economy in a post to X, which includes loans to the Argentine central bank and offers to purchase government debt.

The assistance, Bessent told Fox News in an interview Wednesday, would serve as a “bridge to the election.”

The news was met with frustration from the U.S. soybean industry. Argentina has emerged as a competitor for U.S. soybeans in international markets and is actively working to position itself as an alternative source for Chinese buyers.

Just this week, Milei’s government suspended a grain export tax until the end of October, leading to a flurry of Chinese orders and contributing to a slide in U.S. soybean prices.

“The frustration is overwhelming,” American Soybean Association President Caleb Ragland said in a statement on the U.S. financial assistance to Argentina published Wednesday.

“U.S. soybean prices are falling, harvest is underway, and farmers read headlines not about securing a trade agreement with China, but that the U.S. government is extending $20 billion in economic support to Argentina while that country drops its soybean export taxes to sell 20 shiploads of Argentine soybeans to China in just two days,” Ragland said. “The farm economy is suffering while our competitors supplant the United States in the biggest soybean import market in the world.”

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Even before Argentina announced the suspension of its grain export tax, the Agriculture Department was predicting Argentina's soybean exports to grow 17% in the current marketing year. But without the tax, the country’s beans will be even more competitive in international markets, Karen Braun, chief market analyst at Zaner Ag Hedge told the Women in Agribusiness Summit in Florida this week.

In addition to boosting soybean exports, Argentinian producers recently began shipping soybean meal to China. Multinational grain traders Bunge sent the first soybean meal shipment to China from Argentina in July, Reuters reported, as Chinese animal feed suppliers sought to diversify supplies.

“In the U.S., we are trying to build up our domestic [soybean] processing, and we need to find something to do with this meal,” Braun said at the summit on Monday. That means being able to effectively compete with exports from Argentina, the world’s largest meal exporter.

“But with Argentina making sure they stay competitive, that makes it difficult in that situation for us to become that world meal exporter.”

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