MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina considers Brazil’s complaints about trade restrictions ‘unjustified”

De Mendiguren replied to Brazil’s statement that “Argentina is a permanent obstacle”.

The head of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA), José Ignacio de Mendiguren said on Thursday that the complaints from Brazil over the Argentine import restrictions are “unjustified”.

“The current figures of both countries joint business dictate that the tenor of the statements made by Brazilian Industry and Foreign Trade Minister Fernando Pimentel are totally unjustified”, said the lobbyist.

Likewise, de Mendiguren remembered that “for the past 80 months, Brazil has had a positive trade balance with Argentina”, and added, “Brazil’s exports to Argentina increased by 25% during the last period”.

On Wednesday Pimentel said that “Argentina has been a permanent problem” due to the import obstacles imposed by the administration of President Cristina Fernández.

“We have good political relations, but we have permanent difficulties with regard to trade,” the minister said.

Pimentel is the first Brazilian politician to publicly criticize Argentina’s trade policies; a week after the AFIP tax agency implemented the advance import sworn statement (DJAI), which comes into force on February 1.

Bilateral trade between Argentina and Brazil is over 30 billion dollars annually, and has grown sustainedly during the last seven years. However the balance is always favourable for Brazil and this last year the surplus was 6 billion dollars according to Pimentel.

Brazil and China are Argentina’s main trade partners, but Latin America’s largest economy is crucial for Argentine manufactured exports.