The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, was invited to travel to China to participate in a meeting of the New Development Bank (NBD), bank of the BRICS, where the possibility of modifying one of the articles of the financial entity will be analyzed with the aim of allowing it to move forward with the commitment assumed by the president Lula da Silva with the president Alberto Fernandez to finance Brazilian imports.
The invitation was made directly by the Chinese ambassador, Zou Xiaoli, this afternoon during a meeting with Massa in the Scalabrini Ortiz Hall. The BRICS bank’s board summit will take place on May 30-31 at the headquarters of the New Development Bank in the city of Shanghai.
This is the eighth annual meeting of the bank of BRICS which will bring together the finance ministers of the member countries, representatives of national governments and international organizations, bankers, business leaders and representatives of civil society organizations.
At the beginning of the month, Massa accompanied President Fernández to Brazil, where Lula da Silva assumed the commitment to help companies from his country to continue exporting to Argentina by pre-financing these operations.
Lula’s political support also included a phone call to the former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, owner of NDB, in which he asked him to commit to bringing together the economy ministers of the countries that make up the multilateral entity to change an article that prevents it from functioning as a compensation bank, to favor Argentina.
Take care of BCRA reserves
The minister’s goal is to make the NBD function as a financial guarantor of imports from Brazil to avoid using BCRA reserves.
The invitation letter received by Massa, signed by rousseff and by the Chinese Finance Minister, kun liu, states that world development is facing increasing challenges “such as weakening economic growth, increased volatility in financial markets, the intensification of geopolitical tensions, the fragmentation of trade networks and deteriorating climate prospects The world is undergoing great changes that have not been seen for a century.”
The minister will participate in the eighth annual meeting of the entity that on this occasion will carry the motto “Shaping a new era for global development.” They will discuss how the NDB can enhance “its role in connecting the BRICS and other emerging markets and developing economies to work collectively for this new era of global development.”
Massa and Fernández traveled to Brazil at the beginning of the month and held meetings with Lula and the Brazilian Minister of Economy, Fernando Haddad, who expressed their commitment to help but explained the existing obstacles to carrying out the financing of imports: on the one hand, having the support of local businessmen, on the other receiving the support of Congress and finally the obstacle linked to the bank of the BRICS.
A report by the consulting firm Abeceb revealed that in April the trade deficit with Brazil was US$776 million, a growth of 221% year-on-year. In the first four-month period, the balance closed with negative figures of US$1,774 million, 79% of what there was in all of 2022. The main cause of the increase was the importation of soybeans from Brazil as a result of the drought that affected the pampean region.
Source: Ambito
