Brazilian President Lula Da Silva arrived in Buenos Aires accompanied by a delegation of businessmen with whom they will seek to revive the commercial link with Argentina and analyze the implementation of a common currency for bilateral exchange.
This afternoon the Bicentennial Museum will be the scene of the Business Meeting that will bring together executives from the two countries.
The Argentine Foreign Ministry reports that the Argentine delegation will be made up of
200 representatives of the country's main companies
, while there will be another 60 Brazilian businessmen.
Among the sectors that will participate are the automotive, energy, metallurgical sector and knowledge economy.
There will also be members of the SMEs of the CGT and the CTA.
Representatives of the Argentine Chamber of Commerce, the Construction Chamber, the Industrial Union, the association of metallurgical entrepreneurs (ADIMRA) and the General Economic Confederation (CGE), which brings together SMEs, will attend.
On behalf of the automakers there will be executives from Ford, Stellantis, Toyota, GM, Iveco and Volkswagen.
The meeting's agenda aims to strengthen commercial ties and deepen the integration that had cooled in recent years due to the bad relationship between former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and Alberto Fernández.
Now that Lula has returned to power, they will seek to revive the idea of a common currency, which has been being analyzed for more than 20 years in Mercosur.
But the successive economic crises in Argentina, which is
suffering from an endemic inflation problem that does not affect the other member countries
, made the project come to naught.
Now, and despite the fact that this year inflation is once again set to reach 100%, the issue is back on the agenda.
The expectation of the businessmen is that in this meeting at the Bicentennial Museum
, details of the characteristics of the project will be given
.
The announcement that a common currency will be worked on was made over the weekend through an article published in the Perfil newspaper and signed by the two leaders.
"We intend to overcome barriers to our exchanges, simplify and modernize the rules, and
encourage the use of local currencies,
" they stated in the post.
The intention is that this currency is used to promote trade and that it coexists with the currencies of each of the member countries.
According to reports, the proposal is that the currency be called "South" and that it be used to promote regional trade and reduce dependence on the dollar.
"There will be a decision to
start studying the necessary parameters for a common currency,
which includes everything from fiscal issues to the size of the economy and the role of central banks," Argentina's Economy Minister Sergio Massa had said. to the British newspaper Financial Times.
Financing for the pipeline
A report from the Argentine Center for Political Economy (CEPA) indicates that
Brazil
is our main trading partner:
in 2022 it concentrated 17% of external trade flows
and became the main destination for Argentine exports for almost US$ 12,000 million, 14% of the total.
Purchases from that country, for approximately
US$ 15,000 million,
represented 20% of Argentine imports, ranking second after China.
According to CEPA, the planned negotiation agenda with Brazil includes, in addition to the common currency, the possibility of
a swap from the Brazilian Central Bank to strengthen reserves
and bilateral trade, that is, a reinforcement of money to swell the backs of the BCRA .
Another point that is being worked on is an agreement between public banks such as the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES – in Portuguese Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social), the Banco de la Nación Argentina (BNA) and the Banco de Investment and Foreign Trade (BICE) to deepen trade, finance infrastructure for trade and investment;
and increase the lending capacity of Latin American development banks.
The strongest bet of the "great integration agreement" is
to obtain financing from BNDES to motorize the construction of the second stage of the President Néstor Kirchner Gas Pipeline
.
"The BNDES is working on the technical part to finance the supplies that are purchased from Brazil for the construction of the second section of the Gas Pipeline, especially the pipes, which will run 583 kilometers from Salliqueló, in the province of Buenos Aires, to San Jerónimo, in Santa Fe," says CEPA.
AQ
look too
Alberto Fernández: "A large part of inflation is self-constructed, it is in people's heads"
Common currency between Brazil and Argentina: Elon Musk celebrated the initiative and the Government responded
