BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentine President Javier Milei will likely discuss the recently announced tariff hikes on U.S. imports of steel and aluminum in an upcoming visit to Washington, the governor of a top aluminum-producing province said on Wednesday.
Governor Ignacio Torres of the Chubut province, home to aluminum maker Aluar, said Argentine officials had already discussed the issue with the Latin American nation’s trade secretary and the U.S. embassy in the country.
Milei will be in the U.S. from Thursday to Saturday, where he’s set to meet with Elon Musk and the head of the International Monetary Fund and will coincide with President Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said on Wednesday.
The cabinet office did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment out of office hours on whether Milei would discuss the tariffs on his visit.
Aluar is South America’s largest aluminum exporter. The U.S., however, imports less than 4% of its aluminum from Argentina.
Torres said Trump’s tariff announcement, raising the U.S. tariff rate on aluminum to 25% from 10% previously without exceptions, “doesn’t make sense.”
Trump hopes the move will aid struggling U.S. industry but risks sparking a multi-front trade war and alienating allies in the process.
“We have to defend Argentine labor, Argentine industry and above all, a company (Aluar) that has just announced an investment of more than $600 million in a wind farm in the province,” Torres said.
Torres and cabinet chief Guillermo Francos discussed an upcoming bill that could unlock more than $10 billion in investments in Chubut, the two said.
Congress is set to discuss the “Green Hydrogen Law,” which could draw Polish firm Green Capital to invest in sweeping wind farms in the province, Torres and Francos said.
Green Capital did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Eliana Raszewski; Writing by Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Sam Holmes)
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