The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, and his Brazilian counterpart, Fernando Haddad, announced on Monday an agreement to advance a
366-day import financing line.
The mechanism aims to postpone the use of foreign currency and thus facilitate operations between companies from both countries, today complicated by the
difficulty in accessing dollars
due to restrictions to manage the shortage of reserves.
The Government seeks to decompress a scenario marked by pressure on parallel dollars and a drought that could
reduce the supply of foreign currency from agriculture this year by US$ 10,000 million in an election year.
The lack of foreign currency led to a tightening of trade restrictions and the debt accumulated by the Central Bank with importers would have reached US$9 billion in November, according to BCRA data.
The fear is that the trade deficit with the neighboring and partner country will rise.
The accumulated in 2022 with Brazil
was US$ 3,365 million, according to INDEC.
Within this framework, a commercial credit
is negotiated through Banco do Brasil and Banco Nación
, with cross guarantees.
The objective is that a local company
does not have to wait 180 days to access foreign currency to pay the supplier in Brazil,
but instead requests a letter of credit from the Nation and with that document, the supplier will be able to take out a loan at Banco do Brazil in reais for the equivalent of the operation in dollars.
"Banco do Brasil assumes a commitment to Brazilian companies and Banco Nación assumes a commitment to Argentine companies. By increasing the line of credit, Banco do Brasil to 366 days, the foreign currency payment obligation runs for one year and one day, and that is the positive impact of the Central Bank's reserves, because the payment operation is automatic by Banco Nación and the financing in reais is carried out by the Banco do Brasil for Brazilian companies," Massa explained.
According to the minister, it is an
"extension" of an existing line of credit that benefits Brazilian companies
that would automatically access the system for exports to Argentina and Argentine companies that do not have the difficulty of the financing regime required by the SIRA regime.
"It is a win-win for companies and banks and also additionally for the Central Bank that alleviates the payment in the short term of these imports from Brazil," said the official.
The next step will be the trip to Brazil by the team from the Ministry of Economy and a delegation from Banco Nación.
Massa bets to define in that meeting the financial mechanism with the guarantee regimes.
Precisely, Haddad pointed out that the "first step" will be the constitution of
a guarantee fund and that Banco do Brasil would not assume any risk,
since according to reports Argentina would have to provide a collateral asset.
"Banco do Brasil will end up financing the importer in Argentina, you never get the dollars. Since you can't send foreign currency to Brazil, the Brazilians don't want to deliver merchandise to you and the commercial debt grows.
Now you won't have debt with the supplier, but instead It's going to be between the banks,
the problem is going to be between them when it has to be cancelled," said a businessman who was participating in the talks.
The other point that will be addressed in the tour to Brazil will be the BNDES financing for US$ 820 million of pipes manufactured in Brazil for the second section of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline.
This would be added to the "pre-agreed" credit with CAF for US$520 million and another with the private sector to finance the work, with which the aim is to save US$2.2 billion per year.
