Argentina loses more than US$60,000 million of exports per year. This is because the evolution of foreign sales is far behind that of the countries in the region over the last 20 years.
This is the conclusion of a report prepared by the foreign trade specialist, director of DNI Consultores and president of the Argentine chapter of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Marcelo Elizondo. According to the expert’s report, So far this century, Latin American and Caribbean exports have grown by 306%while those in Argentina did so by 153%.
The country breakdown prepared by Elizondo reflects that Argentine exports went from just over US$26 billion in 2000 to more than US$66 billion in 2023. According to his estimate, Argentina In 2023, it lost almost the equivalent of what it sold if its evolution had been similar to that of the countries in the region on average.
Although it should be noted that in 2023 the country’s external sales were strongly hit by the drought which, according to the Government’s estimates, represented losses for exports of US$ 20 billion, according to the specialist and based on this trend, In 2024, Argentina would export around US$50 billion more than expected.
Exports: the regional comparison
The case of Brazil It is illustrative since it is about the Argentina’s main trading partner. The regional giant went from exporting US$50 billion in the 2000 au$s350 billion last yearThis meant an increase of 535%.
Uruguaysaving the distances of scale, also multiplied its exports exponentially: went from US$2,000 to US$16,000 million in 2023, an increase of 495%.
The Central American common market exported US$17 billion at the beginning of the century and went on to sell US$60 billion (253%), while Latin America as a whole jumped from US$389 billion per year to US$1.5 trillion in 2023.
The most notable cases in terms of export growth over the last 20 years are: Paraguay (1.686%), Peru (744%) and Bolivia (670%). In the case of the latter, its reserves of gas They played a fundamental role both for that country and for Argentina’s results, which had a strong dependence on hydrocarbons.
Argentina’s poor performance is only surpassed by the case of Venezuelawhere exports have decreased so far this century: in 2000 it sold US$30 billion, while in 2023 it reached US$14,992 million (-51.5%).
“It is curious that (ours being an economy with constant exchange rate tightness) there has not existed among us a greater political capacity to improve the conditions of foreign trade access: an adequate macroeconomic environment, a secure institutional framework, a more liberal regulatory context, an encouraging tax regime, solid infrastructure support, appropriate human resource training actions, an efficient public bureaucracy system and a policy of market opening and foreign insertion at our own border and beyond,” analyzed the specialist, who added that It is a necessary condition to have competitive, internationalized companies that participate in the “technological-productive revolution.”
On this last aspect, It is worth noting that Argentine exports in the first seven months of 2024 accumulated US$ 45,397 million, 14.8% more than in the same period of the previous year, according to Indec.
In the first half of the year, soybeans were the main export complex and represented 25.6% of sales with US$ 9.76 billion. This was followed by the oil-chemical complex, which had an equivalent increase (25% in both cases) but reached 13.4% of total exports.
Source: Ambito
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