The final stage of the negotiation between the Argentine government and the IMF included multiple calls and teleconferences during the early hours and most of this Thursday morning between Buenos Aires and Washington to finish polishing the draft of the agreement.
The feverish contacts accelerated with the participation of the Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán; the director of the Southern Cone before the IMF, Sergio Chodos, and the Legal and Administrative Secretary, Rita Haydee Tanuz, on the Argentine side; while Julie Kozack, Deputy Director of the Department of the Western Hemisphere, and Luis Cubeddu, Head of Mission for Argentina, acted for the multilateral organization.
At a critical moment in the discussions, on Wednesday night, there was a communication between Minister Guzmán and the head of the agency, Kristalina Georgieva.
Already at 4 in the morning, the head of the Palacio de Hacienda held a dialogue with President Alberto Fernández to update him on the latest news in the negotiation.
The point that blocked the progress of the talks was the translation into the final documents of the financial tranche of the understanding.
Guzmán expressed his objections to the terms set forth by the IMF in the document and sought to perfect them, so that the Argentine interest is clear, official sources told Télam.
The minister conveyed the concern to the President in the middle of the night and conveyed his disagreement with the paragraphs in question.
In his response, the head of state endorsed the minister’s position and pointed out that “in these terms the agreement is not closed.”
After an interval, the talks with the organization’s staff were resumed in the early hours of today’s morning, at which time the minister also had several exchanges with the Legal and Technical Secretary of the Presidency, Vilma Ibarra.
Finally, around 2:00 p.m. local time, the agreement was sealed and both parties decided to simultaneously announce the understanding.
