Argentina’s three economic nodes | The government is …

“One president at a time” It is the expression most heard in these hours in the government to designate the change of command in the United States. Until Wednesday, none of the ministers of sensitive areas mentioned the leadership of Joe Biden. But with the Democrat in President Donald Trump, that country’s executive, Foreign Affairs, Economy and Embassy began to sharpen the pencil to list local economic nodes that should be unlocked if the change of political sign is effectively reflected in a different vision of the world and the region.

In this wage bill, it seems in the first place to obtain political backing to close the renegotiation with the IMF that we left the change; followed by an overhaul of Argentine biodiesel exports shut down by Trump; more to working together in what they believe is a turnaround for the United States in trade and political relations with countries. A factor which, they understand within the government, has already begun to influence the consideration of countries in the region that hardly shared the Argentinian line.

According to official sources on page I, the Chancellor Felipe Solá highlighted the idea of ​​the government of Alberto Fernández of a United States that returns to multilateralism. They understand that the historical defense of their interests will not be under discussion, but that, because of the dialogues already held, there may be a return of the North to global scenarios of economic debate, rather than the rather bilateral logic imposed. by Trump.

“Starting from Trump, we see that the tension that existed in the meetings with some countries, which were very much linked to the United States mandate hard with Latinos “, an official source told this newspaper. They cited, for example, the best climates that were seen during the meeting that Fernández had with the Colombian Duke Iván during the inauguration of the new president of Bolivia. In the same vein, they put the barbecue that the president shared with the Uruguayan Luis Lacalle Pou in Colonia; and even the videoconference with Jair Bolsonaro or the meetings that have been and will be with the Chilean President, Sebastián Piñera. All leaders who do not read economics and politics through the prism of Fernández, but who adapt to a new American logic.

The bottom

The Minister of the Economy, Martín Guzmán, has been the most careful to venture into definitions of post-Trumpism. “We have to go step by step”he said his. However, in the Treasury, they have confidence, given some previous signs, that the United States may be a political sponsor of the deal with the Fund. The appointment of Janet Yellen to the Treasury and the imminent appointment of a secretary for international relations in accordance with her ideas may be a positive but not a determining condition.

In fact, there is a line in the government that points to another point almost more relevant than the President of the Treasury. That Biden is the second Catholic president in American history and that he has a fluid connection to the dad Francisco. They are delighted that it works like something similar to what happened with the negotiation with private bondholders: there the Pope was the interlocutor who brought the parties closer between the executive and the German Angela Merkel and the director of the IMF herself, Kristalina Georgieva.

“If I had to choose, the first set of problems we have is negotiating with the IMF. Debt was a central issue in the conception of Alberto Fernández’s foreign policy ”, declared the Argentine Ambassador to the United States, Jorge Arguello, in statements to the IP Noticias channel. This front will be attacked from different angles, with a national and international policy and a strategic association with the leaders.

Green fuel

The third item Argentina has on the immediate agenda is almost as important as debt settlement. Since the start of the Trump administration and with the excuse of protecting local producers, The United States has closed Argentina’s access to its biodiesel market. This lock, from the biggest market the local green fuel had, not only kept the country from receiving around $ 1,300 million a year, but it nearly shut down an industry that had already suffered from the collapse of the European market.

“We hope that there will be a change as far as, that it can be negotiated, the arguments which they had do not seem valid to us”, they declared of the government. Naturally, Argentina has a chronic problem of external restriction and lives on hold Dollars, which could well enter by there. On this front and in this lobby, the government is even working with private sector companies to reactivate a key sector. “This is a central question for us,” he explains.

In this scenario, what the government thinks is that the United States is more targeted. Main Street, in the real economy, than in the financial and speculative sectors mapped with Wall Street. Seeing is believing.