🇦🇷🤝🇺🇸 Argentina-U.S. Trade Agreement

Official Publication – February 2026

📌 Background

• ✍️ Signatories: Pablo Quirno (Argentine Foreign Minister) and Jamieson Greer (USTR USA)
• 📍 Location: Washington D.C.
• 📅 Date: February 5, 2026
• 🎯 Objective: To establish a strategic framework for reciprocal trade and investment

🔑 Key Points

• ⚡ Energy: promotion of exploration and exploitation projects with international standards
• ⛏️ Critical minerals: cooperation on lithium and strategic resources
• 🏗️ Infrastructure: financing and development in transport and logistics
• 💻 Technology: knowledge transfer and access to innovation
• 🏢 Business presence: More than 330 U.S. companies already operating in Argentina

📊 Expected Impact

• 📈 Investments: greater predictability and clear rules to attract capital
• 🌍 Bilateral relationship: consolidation of the strategic alliance
• 💡 Innovation: access to new technologies and know-how
• 🚚 Competitiveness: improvement in logistics and exports

⚠️ Considerations

• 🔄 Opportunity: Argentina is positioned as a key partner in sectors of high global value
• 📉 Challenge: Will depend on macroeconomic stability and domestic compliance
• 🏛️ Political context: reinforces the alignment of Javier Milei's government with Donald Trump's administration

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Crisis at INDEC: Marco Lavagna's resignation opens a political and technical front in the government

The departure of Marco Lavagna from the leadership of the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC) unleashed a strong controversy in the national government and revived the debate on transparency and the methodology used to measure inflation in a context of high economic sensitivity. The resignation came after the Executive's refusal to implement a methodological update of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) scheduled for January, which generated internal tensions and public questioning.

A methodological change that never came

According to official sources, the new measurement scheme had been ready since March 2025 and had been publicly announced in September. However, its application was postponed due to "technical issues" and, as it transpired, also for political reasons linked to the impact it could have on the government's economic communication.

The publication of the CPI for January – which was supposed to incorporate the new methodology – was the breaking point. The Casa Rosada insisted on maintaining the current system, which led to the resignation of Lavagna, who considered that the process had lost institutional predictability.

Pedro Lines, the replacement

The Government appointed Pedro Lines as the new director of the agency. Lines has an extensive technical career within INDEC, but his arrival takes place in a climate of mistrust and political noise. Analysts warn that the immediate challenge will be to rebuild the credibility of the organization and guarantee the continuity of statistical standards.

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⚖️ Labor reform in Congress

The ruling party seeks to approve changes in extraordinary sessions, with tense negotiations between governors and the CGT. Patricia Bullrich and Diego Santilli lead the negotiating wing in a scenario full of political tension.

🏛️ Political context

• 📅 Beginning of extraordinary sessions: Congress opened its agenda with labor reform as the central issue.
• 👩 💼 Bullrich and Santilli: leaders of the ruling party who are leading the negotiations.
• ✊ CGT in resistance: deploys  a national tour to pressure governors and stop the project.

📜 Project content

• 🔧 Flexibility of contracts: new contracting modalities.
• 💰 Reduction of labor costs: simplification of compensation.
• 🌍 Official objective: to modernize the labor market and attract investment.
• 🚨 Union criticism: they denounce a setback in acquired rights.

🔥 Tensions and negotiations

• 🤝 Government vs. governors: some support, others condition their vote.
• 🚩 CGT on the offensive: meetings, mobilizations and the threat of a national strike.
• ⏳ Ruling party against the clock: the Senate plans to deal with the initiative on February 11, with no votes assured.

📊 Keys to the debate

🔮 Possible scenarios

• ✅ Approval without changes: political triumph for Milei, but with massive union protests.
• ✏️ Approval with modifications: partial consensus, but with reduced scope.
• ❌ Rejection: strong political blow to the ruling party and escalation of the union conflict.

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The Government promotes the reform of the Juvenile Criminal Law in extraordinary sessions

The Executive confirmed that the lowering of the age of imputability will be debated in February along with the labor reform

The national government confirmed on Monday the inclusion of the reform of the Juvenile Criminal Law in the agenda of the extraordinary sessions of Congress, which will begin next week. The decision was announced by the Chief of Cabinet, Manuel Adorni, after a strategic meeting at Casa Rosada that was attended by the political core of the ruling party.

The initiative, which seeks to modify the current regime of criminal responsibility for minors, thus joins other priority projects of the Executive, such as labor modernization and the modification of the Glacier Law, configuring a high-impact legislative agenda for the month of February.

A high-level political table

The definition was made during a meeting at Casa Rosada in which Karina Milei, Secretary of the Presidency; the Minister of the Interior, Diego Santilli; the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Martín Menem; the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo; the presidential advisor, Santiago Caputo; and Senator Patricia Bullrich.

Through his account on the social network X, Adorni ratified the decision: "We met at Casa Rosada since early. The 'Juvenile Criminal Law' will also be part of the agenda of the extraordinary sessions."

What does the reform propose?

The project originally presented by the Executive Branch in 2024 proposes lowering the age of imputability from 16 to 14 years old, although during the previous parliamentary debate there were tensions on this point. The ministers of Justice, Mariano Cúneo Libarona, and Security, Patricia Bullrich, proposed that it be established in 13 years; the deputies set it at 14.

The opinion that obtained consensus in commissions during 2025 included broader aspects than the simple modification of age: its purpose is to promote in the accused adolescent the sense of legal responsibility for his or her actions and achieve his or her education, resocialization and social integration.

Among the provisions contemplated are specific procedural guarantees for minors, such as the right to defence from the beginning of the process, deprivation of liberty as a last measure, and exclusive accommodation in specialized establishments. The sanctions applied may in no case imply an interruption of studies.

An inconclusive debate that returns to the scene

The project had already gone through an extensive debate during 2025. The discussion lasted nine months and brought together 15 different projects; the ruling never reached the floor, lost parliamentary status, forcing the Executive to restart the process from scratch.

Official sources confirmed that the government could resubmit its original version, although during the previous negotiation it had to give in on key points. The text established a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and expressly prohibited life imprisonment. That was another of the points that were modified during the negotiation: in the ruling that advanced, the limit of custodial sentences for adolescents was set at 15 years.

The political context and the cases that accelerated the decision

The reactivation of the debate takes place in a context marked by criminal cases involving minors and generating media repercussions. The most recent cases include the murder of Joaquín Ibarra, 21, and the death of Uriel Giménez, 12, in addition to the murder of Jeremías Monzón in Santa Fe.

Patricia Bullrich, current senator and former Minister of Security, was blunt on her social networks: "Society needs justice and to prevent new victims. Without consequences, there is freedom to commit crimes. There we will see clearly who is on the side of the Argentines, and who continues to defend the criminals."

Conflicting positions

The project faces strong resistance from sectors of the opposition, human rights organizations and leaders of the Catholic Church. According to a UNICEF report, there is no evidence to show that lowering the age of criminal responsibility has a favorable impact on greater security for the population.

Critics warn that a 14-year-old convicted of a felony could receive a sentence beyond his or her own age, undermining any chance that person could have a life beyond prison.

Kirchnerism already expressed its outright rejection during the debate in commissions in 2025, although the Renovation Front showed internal fissures, with legislators willing to support the initiative.

Next steps

The extraordinary sessions will begin next Monday, February 2 and will last until the 27th of the same month. With a renewed parliamentary map after the 2025 elections, the ruling party is confident of gathering the necessary support to move forward with this reform that promises to become one of the most intense debates of the legislative year.

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