Argentina and Brazil signed a historic pact to boost trade

In an announcement that resonated with great importance, Argentina and Brazil closed a pact of historical relevance on Tuesday. The Development Bank of Latin America-CAF played a crucial role by offering guarantees for a value of 600 million dollars to support exports from Brazil to its neighboring country to the south.

Directly from the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, the protagonists of this agreement, the Minister of Economy and presidential candidate for Argentine Peronism, Sergio Massa, and his Brazilian counterpart, Fernando Haddad, shared the news with the public. This transcendental step took place after a high-level meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Massa, who simultaneously held the positions of minister and candidate for the presidential elections on October 22, described the intervention of the multilateral bank in this agreement as an “unprecedented” step. He assured that this action would pave the way to revitalize the commercial exchange between Argentina and Brazil, a relationship of great importance in the global panorama.

According to Haddad, the 600 million dollars would also have the backing of Banco do Brasil, a state entity. These funds would have a special focus on financing commercial transactions in the automotive and food sectors.

Haddad illustrated this perspective with concrete examples. In the event that the 600 million were allocated to the automotive sector, Brazil could export components for this figure and, in turn, acquire vehicles manufactured in Argentina. This approach would significantly contribute to increasing the flow of foreign currency in the neighboring country, which faces challenges in terms of the availability of dollars for international trade.

Massa, for his part, qualified that this agreement was still subject to certain procedures. Among them, the meeting of the board of directors of the Development Bank of Latin America-CAF, scheduled for September 14, stood out. Both he and Haddad expressed confidence that this operation would be fully approved by that date.

This event marked the first bilateral meeting between officials from Brazil and Argentina after the expansion of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) forum, which added six new members as of January 1, 2024: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.

Massa highlighted both the political and economic relevance of this coalition and, in a clear presidential campaign strategy, lamented the position of certain sectors in Argentina that did not celebrate the entry into this prestigious alliance. Although he did not mention them by name, he was referring to far-right Javier Milei and center-right candidate Patricia Bullrich, who are running against Massa as the main contenders in October’s elections.

Milei, the leader in the polls, responded to Argentina’s invitation to join the BRICS by declaring that, if elected, he would not promote any type of agreement “with communists.”

Bullrich, for her part, also expressed her opposition and argued that Argentina should not ally itself with Ukraine’s “invading Russia” or with Iran, a country she linked to anti-Semitic terrorist attacks that occurred in Buenos Aires years ago.

K. Tovar

Source: Descifrado

(Reference image source: Unsplash+)

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