After meeting with Roberto Azevêdo, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra stated: "We are working on a common agenda. The WTO is a tool, an essential organization in terms of trade integration and coordination at the world level.
Malcorra stressed that Azevêdo and his working team are "analyzing ways of developing a WTO agenda that will give us an opportunity to protect our interests in a more creative manner, taking into account that the 21st century has brought new technologies, new integration methods, and new ways of doing business. We are developing a strategy that will allow us to use the WTO as a tool to place our country, our region and developing countries in a more favourable position in order to discuss these matters."
In turn, Azevêdo added: "The aim of this visit is to exchange ideas. Argentina offers opportunities for cooperation and for the development of the WTO agenda. We want to listen to what Argentina has to say at this point in relation to trade and how to integrate it into its development projects, how to make the WTO contribute to this project."
He also pointed out that the change of government in Argentina "brings opportunities, new ideas, and new ways of conceiving possibilities for progress in the trade and economic fields. I believe this is a moment of great opportunities. Communication is now quite easy and harmonious. The objective of WTO is always development, job creation and the promotion of social development."
ATTACKS IN BRUSSELS
Foreign Minister Malcorra said she was shocked and horrified by the events that took place in Brussels. “Not only does the attack have high impact because of the number of people injured and killed—it is also a blow to freedoms and principles. This affects all societies; it affects social psychology,” she stated.
Minister Malcorra added that President (Barack) Obama’s visit will be “suffused with the impact of these attacks; this will bring to the forefront the issue of concerns over violent extremism, which, as I have said before, is also connected with drug trafficking and illegal forms of trafficking in general.”
“This proves that we have an obligation to work in close coordination and integration, not only within our region, but also worldwide: we are facing adversaries, enemies, whose way of fighting is highly asymmetrical. This shows us how thoroughly integrated we have to be and, above all, the importance of having smooth information flows,” the Argentine Foreign Minister remarked.