The Secretary of International Economic Relations, Cecilia Todesca Bocco, affirmed that despite the fact that Brazil is the main destination for exports, “there is much room for growth in commercial exchange” to increase the participation of local products in the total imports of the neighboring country.
President Alberto Fernandez will receive on Monday his counterpart from Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who will arrive in Argentina for a state visit, which will include the signing of bilateral agreements and participate in the Summit of Heads of State of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac).
on the occasion ministers from different portfolios will sign agreements for cooperation in Energy Sovereignty and Financial Integration, Defense, Health, Science, Technology and Innovation, and Antarctic Cooperation, to which a joint Presidential Declaration will be added.
In this regard, the official of the Argentine Foreign Ministry assured that “the Presidential Declaration has a large number of issues that cover strategic issues of the bilateral relationship”, stating that “For Argentina, Brazil is the main political and economic partner”.
“Our relationship is strategic because it is the main destination of our exports, of which 60% of what we sell them are industrial goods”said Todesca Bocco in statements to the C5N channel.
In this sense, for the Secretary “the relationship is very important from our economic cycle that is very tied to theirs because when Brazil grows and does well, Argentina does well”Therefore, it will seek to “promote all areas of work”.
Todesca Bocco also confirmed that part of the negotiations that the teams of both governments will hold will be the eventual creation of a common currency for bilateral tradewhich would not imply the elimination of the peso or the real.
“Work is being done in this regard by the Ministry of Economy and the Central Bank“said the official among a long list of measures and tools “to encourage and facilitate trade” bilaterally.
bilateral trade
In this sense, the economist noted that Argentina “continues to have a share in the total what Brazil imports quite lowand there is a lot to grow there”.
“Last year, 200 Argentine companies went to Brazil to participate in fairs and missions, and openings for very specific products were achieved, which shows that there is still a lot to be done so that companies can sell” to the region’s main trading partner.
The strategy with Brazil is part of the promotion of exports promoted by the Argentine Government through the Foreign Ministry and the Secretariat for International Economic Relations.
In that sense, yesterday, the indec made known the figures of the accumulated 2022 of the commercial exchange who confirmed that the country exceeded US$ 88.400 million in exports of goods, something never before exported”.
“If we add the service sectorwhich until the third quarter had exports of more than US$10,000 million, will be able to close the total for the year above US$100,000 million”, which was the objective set for 2022.
about el bilateral exchange, After two years of surplus, the deficit with Brazil reached US$2.25 billion in 2022 and returned to the red that had been recorded annually since 2004.
Anyway, the d2022 deficit was lower than in previous years (2004-2018) when it averaged US$ 3,500 M per year.
The deficit was the result of imports that grew well above exports, since while imports totaled US$ 15,358 million and grew 29.3% year-on-year, exports reached US$ 13,104 million with an increase of 9.7 % YoY.
