The Argentine ambassador Daniel Scioli announced in C5N that “we are close to having very good news.” Sergio Massa met with Lula da Silva and Santiago Cafiero travels this Wednesday for a commercial mission.
The chancellor Santiago Cafiero will travel to Brazil this Wednesday to lead a trade mission. Meanwhile, the growing expectation to unlock pending issues and activate a scheme of bilateral trade finance. “We are close to having very good news,” said Argentine ambassador Daniel Scioli in dialogue with C5N. Meanwhile, the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, met with Lula da Silva in the Mercosur summit to accelerate the credit that the Development Bank of the neighboring country will grant to advance with the second stage of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline.
The economic team continues to look for fresh funds in different ways to alleviate the impact of drought that will cost Argentina some US$20 billion this year. This is precisely one of the central points that the delegation headed by Gabriel Rubinstein and Leonardo Madcur will discuss in Washington, which will travel this week to negotiate the agreement with the International Monetary Fund.
But the IMF is not the only partner that can provide relief. Since January of this year, when Lula da Silva assumed the presidency, there have been talks with Brazil to obtain financing for bilateral trade. “We are working hard on the issue and they are very interested because it is a tool to defend their industries”, a high official source remarked to Ámbito.
This week there will be a series of high-level political meetings in the bilateral relationship. On Monday, President Alberto Fernández met with his Brazilian counterpart in the framework of the Mercosur summit that was held in Puerto Iguazú. This Tuesday, in the same context, Massa did the same, who also spoke with officials from the economic team of that country.
As Ámbito learned, Lula invited Massa to visit Brazil as a presidential candidate Union for the Fatherland. In addition, there were conversations tending to speed up the agreement for the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) to finance to the companies that participate in the construction of the second stage of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline.
This Wednesday, Cafiero will travel to Brasilia accompanied by businessmen and other officials from the Foreign Ministry to lead a trade mission in the metallurgical sector. In this case, the diplomatic delegation seeks to recover export ground in fundamental sectors such as auto parts and agricultural parts. According to a report by the Argentine Chamber of Commerce, the sales to Brazil they fell for the third month in a row. In June 2023 the drop was 31% year-on-year.
Both Argentina and Brazil want to strengthen the bilateral relationship and strengthen the regional alliance within Mercosur. In a context of scarcity of foreign currency, financing could be a tool to advance on the most concrete level: commercial. “Everything is progressing because there is great political will,” a senior source told this medium.
Scioli’s statements in C5N rekindled the expectation. “We are close to having very good news,” said the Argentine ambassador. His recent incorporation into the Ministry of Economy as an honorary adviser once again puts Brazil at the center of the scene as a possible fundamental player in the bridge that Massa wants to build to cross the harsh impact of the drought without any problems in the exchange rate. .
Source: Ambito
