Overview
- Following bilateral talks, Beijing chose to manage Argentina’s beef cap through first-come, first-served accounting at Chinese customs rather than through Argentine allocation or exporter-held certificates.
- Argentina requested monthly publications on quota usage and asked that import licenses not be required for Chinese importers to bolster predictability.
- The initial cap is set at 511,000 tonnes with about 2% annual growth planned over the multi-year safeguard period.
- Industry representatives expressed relief and expect limited short-term disruption because the cap aligns closely with recent shipment volumes to China.
- Operators reported that Chinese buyers initially paid roughly US$200–400 more per tonne for Argentine beef after the safeguard took effect.