In a meeting with business leaders this Thursday (25), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva once again defended the adoption of measures to ensure that Brazil does not lose the Argentine market, due to the economic difficulties experienced by the neighboring country, the third largest Brazilian trading partner. “You must have seen news in the newspaper. More than wanting to help Argentina, we want to help Brazilian exporters who export to Argentina. This is concrete data,” said Lula at an event held by the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp), in the capital of São Paulo. Brazil’s biggest trading partners in South America, the Argentines are facing a new serious economic crisis, with the devaluation of the peso – the local currency – loss of purchasing power and high inflation rates. In March, inflation in the neighboring country reached 104% per year. Traditionally, Brazil exports industrialized items to the Argentine market, also buying manufactured products from the neighboring country. Bilateral trade is concentrated in the automotive sector, metallurgy and petrochemical products. For this reason, the subject generates a lot of interest in the national industry, especially among industrialists in São Paulo. At the beginning of the month, Lula received the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, in Brasília. On the occasion, the Brazilian leader stated that the federal government would articulate with the Brics, an economic bloc made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), some type of aid to Argentina. One of the measures being studied is the opening of a line of credit precisely to finance Brazilian companies that export to the Argentine market. Argentina suffers foreign trade restrictions to pay for its imports. The local currency is not convertible to import from other countries and this affects transactions between Brazilian and Argentine companies. In a similar measure, according to Lula, China even invested US$ 30 billion to finance exports to Argentina. Brazil has been losing the Argentine market to the Chinese, who are also the biggest commercial partners of the neighbor. Currently, the trade flow between the two largest economies in South America is around US$ 13 billion. This week, the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, canceled a trip to China to attend a meeting of the New Development Bank (NBD), the BRICS Bank, headquartered in Shanghai. The financial institution is currently chaired by former president Dilma Rousseff. The reason for canceling the trip is the intense agenda of votes on the economic agenda in the National Congress, such as the new fiscal framework and the advancement of discussions around tax reform. Commitment During the event at Fiesp, Lula reinforced his commitment to be more successful in this new mandate than in his two previous terms (2003 to 2010). “I would not go back to being President of the Republic of Brazil to be smaller than I was in two terms. Don’t be under any illusions, I returned to the Presidency of the Republic because I believe it is possible to recover this country. This country has to grow again economically, people have to go back to eating three times a day, people need to go back to studying, [temos que] build more universities and more technical schools. I don’t see it as an expense, but as a necessary investment for us to regain international competitiveness,” he said. Lula also defended a competitive, modern industrial policy that takes into account technological advances and issues of environmental sustainability.
Agência Brasil
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