The United States would consider signing a trade agreement with Argentina, President Donald Trump told media at the White House on Monday. During the press conference, Trump also referred to Argentine President Javier Milei as a “great leader.”

The remarks represent Trump’s most significant nod to Milei to date, and the Republican’s return to power has raised hopes within the Argentine government of a growing partnership between the two countries. Milei has aligned his foreign policy with the United States since assuming office, although his relationship with Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, was more cordial.

Speaking of Milei, Trump added that his counterpart was doing “a great job, a fantastic job. He’s saved his country from oblivion.”

Maurice Claver-Carone, the former president of the Inter American Development Bank and the U.S. State Department’s current envoy for Latin American affairs, subsequently clarified that the United States was not pursuing new free trade deals as such.

“I think the President Trump has been very clear: we are not looking for new free trade agreements,” he said. “What we want are fair and equitable trade agreements, and in that sense we would like to work with Argentina.”

“Free trade agreements as they were known in the 1990s are already at an end,” Claver-Carone added. “An investment promotion agreement is much more feasible than a free trade agreement.”

On a recent visit to National Harbor, Maryland, to attend the Consevative Political Action Committee conference known as CPAC, Milei said that Argentina will be the first country to join this reciprocal trade proposal. The Argentine president added that were it not for Mercosur restrictions, he would already be working on a deal with the United States.

At the opening of Congress over the weekend, Milei went one step further, announcing that Argentina has a “historic opportunity” to negotiate such a pact, but that to do so, it may be “necessary to make Mercosur more flexible or even leave it.” Established in the Treaty of Asunción in 1991, the trade bloc consists of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

According to Milei, Argentina aims to increase imports so that Argentines can have “the freedom to trade with whomever they want” and “buy better quality products at a better price, freely.” 

During his address, the president derided past governments’ protectionist policies, claiming that they “made Argentines’ living costs more expensive under the premise of protecting a handful of jobs.” Milei likewise argued that exports would also increase if markets were opened up.