Argentina/Brazil trade dispute: partners can’t agree who’s to blame

Thursday, November 5th 2009 - 12:53 UTC

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Eduardo Bianchi, Argentina’s Secretary of Industry

Argentina has accused Brazil of not keeping to agreed “self regulated” bilateral trade understandings originally destined as an umbrella for Argentine industry, and instead has resorted to customs barriers which are delaying or impeding exports.

“Brazilian authorities are not keeping to what was agreed” said Argentine Industry Secretary Eduardo Bianchi during an interview with the Buenos Aires press on Wednesday.

Beginning two weeks ago Brazil has imposed non automatic import licences which are delaying Argentine exports, in some cases of perishable goods, a similar measure to that applied by Argentina to certain Brazilian intermediate goods.

“They are requesting more import licences than those we agreed on and so according to their view we are infringing. But that is because they are not complying with the self regulation agreement, the self imposed limits on sales”, added Bianchi.

“This is quite evident with furniture and footwear, and it’s not the fault of the Argentine government but Brazilian responsibility” said Bianch describing the current situation which has seen hundreds of Argentine trucks delayed at Brazilian customs along border crossings.

Bianchi mentioned car batteries, excluded by Argentina from the automatic licences system and with an agreed quota of 850.000 units for the whole year, but “already 1.125.000 have arrived in Argentina”.

In the opposite direction Bianchi said Argentina had agreed to a self imposed limit of 15.000 tons of powder milk between May and September, “but we have only been able to ship 10.400 tons to Brazil”.

Bianchi said that all agreed limits for Brazilian furniture and foot wear in Argentina have been ignored: “Once you have passed that limit the product does not have access and problems begin. But it is Brazil’s problem since they do not harmonize exports to what was voluntarily agreed at the time”.

Brazilian exporters’ complaints are “reasonable” but they must be addressed by their own government. However he admitted there could be some delays in delivering import licences for certain Brazilian products, “but that is not the rule”.

“Under no circumstances can such a reaction from Brazil, imposing dealys and obstacles to Argentine produce, be explained”, underlined Bianchi.

Asked about the Brazilian restrictions to trade from Argentina, Economy minister Amado Boudou said that “President Cristina Kirchner stood up and addressed the issue directly. Too much is at stake and linked to provincial economies”.

More over since most are perishable goods “through Foreign Affairs and with Deborah Giorgi from the Secretary of Industry we immediately worked on the issue, and we are continuing discussions. Since Brazil is our main trade partner we will always have issues to discuss”, said Boudou.

Categories: Economy, Politics, Argentina, Brazil.

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philip
While brazil has taken a 100 hundres to raise from its misery, Argentina has taken 50 years to land into misery... these disputes are the cornerstone of a new South Amercian reality : that of Brazilean supremacy in both economical, cultural and social issues. Argentna had it all.. and now they are complaing about 5000tm of milk pouder. The typical historical Arrogance of Argentnes have killed the country.how dumb can one get !
Nov 05th, 2009 - 06:05 pm 0
Nicholas
Well Philip, since Brazil is also becoming supreme in Military hardware, I bet you will see the Argentinian government becoming hysterical and will try hard to waste money on updating their military too, though with second hand crap. In my opinion, Argentina and Argentines get what they deserve, it's just amazing how they keep on voting for the same clowns who just openly lie to them, it's similar like Washington DC, but worse. Brazil is getting more powerful than what Argentina was in the past and ever will be. That's a reality and if they are really smart as they claim, they accept that and just move on to become a stable nation. I also congratulate Brazil for doing a good job, and god bless them by keep doing what they suppose to do, let the Argentines believe their own nonsense what keeps them where they belong and god bless the Argentines who are just fed up with this nonsense and simply leave or just try to ignore their clowns and make the best of life. The only thing that really bothers me is that my country is heading the same way like Argentina and I just wish that Americans open their eyes and learn from their arrogance.
Nov 06th, 2009 - 02:48 am 0
Bubba
Philip, Brazil is making moves on the economic front, having done what the IMF told them too about 10 years ago. The social and cultural issues, get real, the drug gangs are shooting down helicopters in Rio. Brazil is still listed as one of the corrupt LA countries..Only Chile and Uruguay seem to have corruption under control.
Nov 07th, 2009 - 03:50 pm 0

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