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Argentina urges EU for a trade deal.

 

EU south america trade deal

Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández has called for the EU to renegotiate a trade deal with South America, saying the agreement is unbalanced and a threat to the car industry in Brazil and Argentina. «We have to sit down and look at how we can reach an agreement on a more realistic basis,» Fernández told the Financial Times’ Global Boardroom conference. The trade deal between the EU and the Mercosur bloc, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, was agreed upon in principle in 2019 after nearly two decades of haggling. «The real reason is that for Brazil and Argentina car producers, the only car producers in South America, that agreement is a problem, as it makes things difficult for us if European competition comes to South America».

He added that south American nations also faced «a load of obstacles» in selling agricultural exports to Europe, with countries such as France, Ireland and Poland opposed to ending farm subsidies and allowing competition from Argentina. «Neither Lula nor I am against the agreement with the EU,» Fernández explained. «You have to bear in mind what this agreement is. » While arguments continue over the trade pact, Argentina is striking deals with China, its second-biggest trading partner after Brazil.

Fernández said Argentina need not choose between the US and China, saying he had no desire to recreate the cold war era. «Argentina has to do what suits Argentina best,» he said. «The US is very concerned about what China might do in Latin America, but China can do it. » Argentina is building a naval base at Ushuaia in southern Patagonia to support vessels patrolling the south Atlantic and Antarctic, but Fernández rejected as «fantasy» reports that China was involved.

«In Argentina, you can’t have Chinese, American, or French military bases. » Argentina faces daunting economic challenges, with inflation nearing 100 per cent a year, access to global financial markets essentially cut off after a 2020 default and exchange controls pushing the black market dollar to nearly twice the official level. Nevertheless, Fernández said the economy was «strange» as, despite high inflation and «unpayable» levels of debt, the country also had record levels of foreign investment and exports in the first half of the year, unemployment was low, and consumption was growing.

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  1. Wade8 December 2022 at 10:45

    Things have changed a lot since 2019 when this was agreed upon. A new trade deal should be a priority now and everyone should be winning from it, not just one side.

    ReplyDelete

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