The President of the Republic, Gabriel Boric, led this Tuesday in Buenos Aires the opening of a meeting with more than forty Argentine and Chilean businessmen, where he invited the trans-Andean private sector to cooperate in deepening economic and commercial relations between both countries. .
In his opening speech, the Chilean president called for “reactivating” the country’s economy through an approach that emphasizes “stability”, “fiscal responsibility” and “integration” with the rest of the regional economies.
“The mountain range that unites us, rather than separates us, has quite similar materials on both sides. How we work with greater collaboration and integration is very important,” said Boric, who highlighted his commitment to a trade policy “respectful” of human rights and “promoter of cooperation and productive transformation”.
This meeting, which brings together entrepreneurs from cooperatives, industries and B companies, among other sectors, also had the presence of the Argentine Foreign Minister, Santiago Cafiero, at its opening, who spoke of a “re-launch” of political and economic relations between the two countries.
“Developing that economic link during the day and strengthening that bilateral relationship will be the work and task of all of you. We are convinced that the start of these talks will make it possible to generate new mechanisms for cooperation, exchange and twinning” , affirmed the head of Argentine diplomacy.
According to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec), Chile is the fifth main destination for Argentine exports, with shipments that in the 12 months of 2021 amounted to 4,182 million dollars, which implied a year-on-year increase of 44.7%. .
During that period, the main Argentine exports to the neighboring country were beef, vehicles and liquefied propane.
Regarding Argentine imports from Chile, these totaled 696 million dollars last year (+29.1% year-on-year), leaving a positive balance for Argentina of 3,486 million dollars, the largest volume of surplus that Argentina has in the balance of the different countries with which it trades.
In this sense, the Chilean president urged to give “continuity” to the policies of his predecessors in economic and commercial matters with Argentina.
“Last year, the commercial exchange between Argentina and Chile increased significantly and that is not an achievement that should be attributed to my administration, of course. Being a State policy, we are giving it continuity and we want to deepen it. We are not here to invent the wheel,” Boric said.
It should be noted that the president began his first state visit on Monday with an agenda full of activities in the Argentine capital.
After the opening of this business forum, Boric will visit the former Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada (ESMA), the largest clandestine detention center of the last Argentine civic-military dictatorship (1976-1983).
