MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Kerry supports Macri free-market policies but calls for patience: things don't change overnight
Kerry addressed growing local discontent over an economy beset by stagflation. “It’s not all going to change overnight,” Kerry told a group of business leaders 
“Getting rid of bad habits takes a little bit of time,” an implicit criticism of the Cristina Fernández administration. 
Kerry with Malcorra formally set into motion a regular High-Level Dialogue to discuss bilateral issues such as security cooperation, trade and investment. United States Secretary of State John Kerry urged Argentina to be patient with the slow pace of economic progress and investments under its new government and praised president Mauricio Macri’s free-market stance.
Kerry addressed growing local discontent over an economy beset by stagflation. “It’s not all going to change overnight,” Kerry told a group of business leaders at a breakfast meeting in Buenos Aires.
“Getting rid of bad habits takes a little bit of time and investment takes a little bit of time to take hold and begin to create momentum,” he added, an implicit criticism of the Cristina Fernández administration. “But I am 100 percent confident, as is President Obama, that Argentina is on the right course. People need to be patient.”
The appeal for patience was partnered with robust support from Kerry for Macri and his counterpart Susana Malcorra. Emerging from a brief meeting with Foreign Minister Malcorra, he underscored the “United States friendship and our respect for Argentina and our commitment to working together through this dialogue and in other ways to deal with problems that we face“.
”And that is really the heart of the message that I bring to Buenos Aires. I have no doubt that President Macri and the foreign minister are as firmly committed to a close, sustained partnership with the United States as the United States is with Argentina. And I think that could not be more important at this time.”
Kerry, as did Obama before him last March, gave his stamp of approval to Macri’s economic package. “Argentina is an extraordinary country with talented people educated, capable enormous resources. And as it changes with the reforms that have been put in place, the economic prospects are going to change. There will be more investment. There will be more growth. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it will happen because of the determination of the direction this government has chosen to move in.”
In addition to meeting with Macri, Kerry and Malcorra formally set into motion a regular High-Level Dialogue to discuss bilateral issues such as security cooperation, trade and investment.
As part of that cooperation, Kerry announced that further to notification to the US Congress, the State Department has set aside US$ 1.5 million to support law enforcement and criminal justice sector reform initiatives aimed at tackling improving border and airport security, prevent money-laundering, counterterrorism, and reduce the demand itself for illegal drugs.
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Read all commentsWhat is Kerry talking about?
Aug 06th, 2016 - 03:52 am 0Time is Macri's worst enemy, because each passing month brings more proof of the ineptitude of a government made of CEOs pulling all in different directions.
Following on the heels of a federal court that put on hold increases in gas bills, another judge has now frozen the electrical bill increases.
As domestic demand crumbles and imports begin replacing local production and local jobs go south, the Macri government appears in total denial of increasing social unrest with more Argentines joining street protests every day.
Oh, but never fear! “...the State Department has set aside US$ 1.5 million to support law enforcement and criminal justice sector reform initiatives...”
We are saved.
“Getting rid of bad habits takes a little bit of time,”
Aug 06th, 2016 - 04:29 am 0Peronismo is the very portrait of all that are Bad Habits. Crime, corruption, nepotism, malfeasance, the inability to so much as provide significant surveillance of coastal fishing waters, the unwillingness to understand the fundamental concepts of debt or inflation or contractual obligations. The stifling of free expression. And on and on.
It will take years to have any sort of meaningful rectification of those many Bad Habits. So obvious that even that dim-witted Kerry can appreciate the inertia of Bad Habits.
@1
Aug 06th, 2016 - 07:42 am 0Novel idea: maybe the people that protest now, and the ones that protested under CFK should all go buy an algebra book.
I defended CFK's right's to fulfill her term, and she did. I will defend Macri's too because that is what a fair minded person would do, the type of people sorely lacking in Argentina.
Learn some calculus, or 9 languages, or 60000 words, or engineering. With the importances argentines give to education these days no government left or right has the magic to bring high salaries. CFK or Macri.... imports of certain items are rising because our products in those areas SUCK, ever thought about that concept?
Got to make quality things, or novel things, or be extremely efficient in farming and resources. You can't print salaries, and you can't austerity yourself to high salaries either. Geez, all those protesters should go to school.
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