The Trump administration’s offer to bail out Argentina with a $20 billion swap line and other financial assistance has infuriated U.S. soy producers, as well as leading members of Congress and top MAGA supporters, who ask why Trump would aid Argentina at tax payers expense and then watch while it just sold huge quantities of soy flour to China. China used to be the U.S.’s biggest market for soybean products but Trump’s insane tariff policy has now shut American producers out of China’s market altogether. The irony here is that, despite the bailout talk, the U.S. has made clear it won’t cough up any funds for Argentina until after the Oct. 26 midterm elections, and only if President Javier Milei’s party does well.
In the middle of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s negotiations with Argentina and his Sept. 24 announcement of the $20 billion swap line, Finance Minister Luis Caputo orchestrated the elimination of all export taxes on agro products, which for the 48 hours the waiver lasted, a flood of dollars came into the country. Argentine sources report that Caputo arranged for some of his oligarchic friends at the largest grain cartels, Cargill, Dreyfus, Bunge, ADM and others, to make a killing on soy sales in the futures market, edging out smaller producers. According to La Politica Online Sept. 27, absent export taxes, China’s giant state-owned Oil and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO) bought over 2.5 million tons of soy flour worth more than $1.2 billion. It required 20 cargo ships to transport the soy products to China.
