MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina accepts consultation with EU on trade restrictions and also drags Falklands’ to the dispute

Foreign Minister Timerman says Argentina rejects all and every one of the EU objections on trade

Argentina announced on Monday it had accepted the request from the European Union for a round of consultations, before the World Trade Organization, on the country’s controversial trade policies, but at the same time rejected all and every one of the questioned points and dragged the Falklands’ dispute into the fray.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry declares that Argentina will continue to claim concrete solution for the access restrictions Argentine farmers’ face in the developed countries.

“These restrictions include long-established protectionist practices, such as distortive subsidies, quotas, tariff scaling and peaks plus new non-tariff restrictions such as sanitary, phyto sanitary and technical barriers allegedly justified in the protection of the environment and of animal welfare, among others”.

However in spite of Argentina’s willingness once again, to dialogue and to comply with the rules and procedures of international bodies of which it is part, “a state member from the European Union systematically ignores 39 resolutions from the United Nations”, which is a direct reference to the UN calls for Argentina and the UK to begin discussions on the Falklands issue.

Thus “Argentina calls on the EU to respect, always, the decisions from international organizations and not use them only as instruments of pressure”.

Furthermore the defence of Argentina involves not only the economic interests of the country but also those of the developing countries which make use of trade policy as a tool for national development.

The release argues that the European request represents an unfounded questioning of legitimate public policies of Argentina applied in conformity with WTO rules, adding that “such a position could be interpreted as a line of action which tries to squeeze the legitimate economic policies of emerging countries with the purpose of emptying in these dynamic markets the exportable surpluses of developed countries, currently in crisis and with contractive fiscal policies which limit the global aggregate demand”.

Thus Argentina rejects all and every one of the EU objections wants to discuss, and will continue to claim concrete solutions for the access restrictions that are applied by developed countries on Argentine trade and exports.

The EU made the request for a round of consultation in the framework of WTO disputes’ settlement system last 25 May and had ten days to reply to such a request.

EU claims Argentina is applying direct and indirect protectionist measures by limiting and delaying imports plus demanding a ‘trade balancing’ from companies involved in international commerce and operating in Argentina. Basically this means Argentina demands companies compensate every import dollar with and export dollar.