Mercosur Ministers of Industry meeting in Paraguay, ahead of the presidential summit, discussed on Tuesday different mechanisms to weaken the flood of ‘cheap’ manufactured goods from Southeast Asia.
Korea’s Hyundai reached an agreement with the Argentine government by which it will compensate its 91 million US dollars surplus on sales to the local domestic market by promoting exports of peanuts, wine, bio-diesel and soy flour to the tune of 157 million US dollars.
Argentina and Brazil seem to be again on the path of normalizing bilateral trade following the mid May spat that triggered a round of technical exchanges in Buenos Aires and a final meeting at ministerial level in Brasilia. On Monday, allegedly all the Argentine cars delayed in the border will have been cleared into Brazil.
Argentina and Brazil agreed Thursday to abide by the 60-day retention period applied to products affected by non automatic tariff trade barriers and accelerate trade in the agricultural sector with the purpose of overcoming the conflict that erupted mid May and had virtually frozen bilateral operations.
Argentine Industry Minister, Debora Giorgi, and her Brazilian counterpart Fernando Pimentel will meet this Thursday in Brasilia in order to discuss a possible solution for the trade conflict currently affecting Brazil and Argentina
Brazilian Industry Secretary Alessandro Teixeira said on Wednesday that no progress has been made so far regarding the trade impasse over Brazil’s import delays for Argentine cars and auto parts, but denied any crisis with Argentina since negotiations are on-going.
Brazil and Argentina agreed to monthly meetings on commerce, Argentina said, as the neighbouring countries try to overcome tensions that flared earlier this month over car imports.
Ford Motor Argentina is the latest carmaker to sign an agreement with the government to boost exports to compensate for increased imports. Ford has vowed to boost its export surplus to 90 million USD by 2012, the Economy ministry said in a press release Monday. That follows a deficit of 250 million USD in 2010.
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff's international affairs advisor Marco Aurélio García lowered the tone of the trade conflict with Argentina and said that the relationship between both countries is fine despite the trade barriers that Brazil imposed on the import of Argentine cars.
The trade dispute among Mercosur main partners seems to be abating from the moment Brazil authorized on Friday the introduction of 1.000 cars manufactured in Argentina that had been retained in Customs since the implementation of non automatic import licences.