The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, affirmed this Thursday that the framework agreement reached with the United States with a view to sealing a pact on trade and investment matters reflects the South American country’s will to be a “more open” economy.
“Today the trade agreement with the United States was just signed. As you will see, we are strongly committed to making Argentina great again,” expressed Milei when speaking at the Regional Economy Congress organized by the Freedom Club in the Argentine city of Corrientes (northeast).
Argentina and the United States established this Thursday in Washington a framework agreement with a view to signing a pact on trade and investment that, among its main elements, will include tariff, regulatory and intellectual property aspects and will cover everything from agricultural and industrial goods of all types and critical minerals to electronic commerce.
According to a joint statement released by the White House, the United States and Argentina committed to working “expeditiously” to finalize the text of the agreement for signature and carry out the formal procedures within each country so that the pact can enter into force.
The framework agreement was announced after a meeting in Washington between the Argentine Foreign Minister, Pablo Quirno, and the Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio.
“We are working to make the Argentine economy more open because those economies that are more open are more productive and richer and the best reflection is that today the bilateral agreement with the United States came out when the prophets of the apocalypse said that nothing was going to happen,” Milei said.
Last October, within the framework of Milei’s meeting with Donald Trump at the White House, both governments had confirmed that they were seeking to sign a trade agreement.
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The United States is the largest direct foreign investor in Argentina and one of the South American country’s main trading partners.
In terms of trade, the United States is the third destination for Argentina’s exports, behind Brazil and China.
It is also the third country of origin of Argentina’s imports, also behind Brazil and China.
According to the most recent official data, in the first nine months of this year Argentina exported to the United States for a total of 5,689 million dollars, with a year-on-year increase of 2.1%, while it imported from the United States for 7,854.9 million dollars, with an increase of 17.8%.
With information from EFE
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