Official presentation of "Argentina Exports" with the participation of President Mauricio Macri, Minister of Production Dante Sica and congresswoman Elisa Carrió
"The Argentine Foreign Ministry and its network of embassies and consulates are available to provide support for the Argentine productive sector, which is becoming international. We are the foreign service, we serve the people and, in terms of exports, we serve businesspeople and especially SMEs," Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie stated during the official presentation of "Argentina Exports", the federal strategy to increase Argentine exports.
During the event held at the Kirchner Cultural Centre (CCK) together with the Minister of Production and Labour, Dante Sica, Faurie underscored the role of the Foreign Ministry in promoting foreign trade and noted that "Argentine embassies and consulates know what the world wants to buy; they are the cornerstone for us to provide service to Argentine businesspeople for them to increase their exports and place their products abroad."
"Think of the Foreign Ministry as a large Argentine multinational enterprise, represented in more than 150 cities around the world," Faurie added and highlighted the role of Argentine representations in assisting the needs of Argentine exporters facing operational difficulties to do business abroad.
The official presentation was attended by President Mauricio Macri and congresswoman Elisa Carrió, as well as national and provincial government officials, dozens of businesspeople, entrepreneurs, economists and legislators.
"One of the goals of the Foreign Ministry is to look for new markets and reopen lost markets. Since 2016, we have achieved more than 150 openings in 50 markets in all continents for products with direct impact on regional economies," he stressed.
Faurie clearly stated that "taking a long-term view, President Macri is working on the stabilization of the main macroeconomic variables for all economic actors to be able to work within a rational framework," and highlighted that "one of our first goals is to eliminate fiscal deficit, which is the main cause of many of our economic problems."
"Exports are still a pending task for Argentina. For exports to continue growing, we need to work for greater integration in infrastructure and energy, and to lower distortive taxes," the Foreign Minister stated and added that "We need to consider what the world wants to buy from Argentina, have sufficient scale of production and have know-how in exports."
The Argentine Foreign Minister stated that "from our current level of relations with 10% of the world, we want to jump to 50% by 2030," while describing the ongoing trade negotiations agenda carried out by Argentina "together with Mercosur members and involving leading players at the global level such as the EU, EFTA, Korea, Singapore, Canada, Mexico and Peru, among others."
"Some suggest that Argentina opens up to the world when the world closes in on itself. We disagree. The world is not closing in: NAFTA has been reinterpreted and still stands; the Trans-Pacific Partnership has eleven member countries; the EU has continued making agreements with Canada and Japan. It is true that the world stage is changing, but the closure is not yet a reality," he noted.
Press Release No. 410/18
