This paper intends to analyse the agreements reached at the G20 Summit which took place on 18 and 19 June 2012 in Los Cabos, Mexico, in the light of the current international context and of Argentina’s position and interests in the forum. Argentina’s participation in the G20 is both an important foreign policy challenge and an opportunity to advance the interests of our country in a range of issues on the international agenda and to strengthen political coordination with other emerging countries.
During 2012, Mexico, which is in charge of the G20’s rotating presidency, presented an orthodox agenda, influenced by the view of organisations such as the OECD and the IMF. Some of the topics that were put forward included fiscal consolidation and structural adjustment as ways to recover from the economic crisis, and the across-the-board introduction of the concept of “green growth” in the different G20 working groups.
Our country, together with other emerging countries, did not agree with this initial view and thus coordinated positions that slowly generated consensus so that the Los Cabos Declaration, signed by the G20 Leaders in June 2012, contains elements of interest for Argentina. In this sense, it is worth highlighting that the language calling for strategies toward strong, sustainable and balanced growth as well as job creation became the cornerstones of the Declaration. Moreover, the importance of investing in infrastructure—which is considered by our country as a key countercyclical instrument to overcome the development gap—was stressed. Additionally, with regard to international trade, the commitment to conclude the Doha Round in accordance with its mandate was reiterated. Lastly, the concept of “green growth” was finally reformulated to highlight the social dimension of development; it was also recognized that this concept should not be used as an excuse to introduce new obstacles to trade. (Full text only available in Spanish)