MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Trade deficit main “concern” for Argentine/Brazilian relations

Foreign Affairs minister Hector Timerman

Argentine Foreign Affairs minister Héctor Timerman revealed Tuesday that the trade deficit Argentina has with Brazil is “concerning”, and indicated that both nations are working “to reduce it.”

Furthermore, the minister also explained that he was not part of Monday’s meeting between presidents Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff: “They were alone for almost two hours and I have no idea if the trade deficit topic was even discussed”, and added, ”Anyway it is a concerning topic for both countries as Argentina has a trade surplus with the rest of the world except with Brazil.”

To reduce the trade deficit with Argentina’s main neighbour, Timerman considered that both nations “should focus on selling value added products made jointly to the rest of the world.”

Imports to Argentina from Brazil increased 322.8% between 2003 and 2010, growing from US$4.2 billion to US$17.9 billion, according to data released Monday by Sectorial Economic Investigations (IES), a consultancy.

That came at a time when bilateral commerce between the two neighbours increased 273.5% going from 8.641 billion USD in 2003 to 32.262 billion USD. In 2010, imports were led by automobile parts that increased 67.3% year-on-year and made up 26% of total imports to Argentina.

Last year, total exports to Brazil grew to 14.319 billion, an increase of 25.9% when compared to 2009.