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(Bloomberg) -- President Javier Milei said he’s chopping tariffs on Argentina’s exports of meat and crops including soybean products to appease the country’s farmers, who view the libertarian leader as falling short on his free-trade promises.

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Argentina’s influential farming associations have been seeking relief from the levies, which have held back rural development in Argentina and helped make Brazil the region’s undisputed agricultural powerhouse.

Tariffs on soy meal and soy oil — Argentina is the top exporter of both — will fall to 24.5% from 31%. For soybeans, the rate drops to 26% from 33%, and for corn to 9.5% from 12%. Several beef cuts will now be taxed 5% instead of 6.75%.

Argentina’s export tariffs are “a great scourge that should never have existed,” Milei said at an annual cattle show in Buenos Aires. “These reductions are permanent and won’t be reversed while I’m in power. Extinguishing export tariffs is an obsession of our administration.”

Lower rates will make Argentina more competitive as global trade is redrawn by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

While Milei is ideologically opposed to the levies, he still needs the billions of dollars in annual revenue that come from crop and meat cargoes, especially soy, to achieve his priority of posting budget surpluses.

While Milei has been unshackling agriculture from years of government intervention, export tariffs remain the elephant in the room. The cuts announced Saturday will help growers, who have strongly backed Milei but are struggling to turn a profit amid low global crop prices.

Nicolás Pino, head of the Argentine Rural Society, called on Milei to keep shrinking the tax burden on farmers.

“That includes, above all else, scrapping export tariffs,” he said, addressing the event just before Milei. “They’re worse than the plague, floods or drought.”