Brazil and Argentina reached an agreement to finance imports from the neighboring country for 600 million dollars with the guarantee of the Latin American Development Bank (CAF), said the Argentine Minister of Economy and candidate of the ruling party to the presidency, Sergio Massa, and his Brazilian counterpart, Fernando Haddad.
“We found an instrument to finance exports from Brazil to Argentina for 600 million dollars that, in addition, has an impact on the financing of exports from Argentina to Brazil,” Massa said.
The tool was agreed upon by Brazil’s Ministry of Finance, the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), Banco Do Brasil, and Argentina’s Ministry of Economy. Massa added.
“We found a surpassing mechanism for the Brazilian and Argentine automotive and food sectors,” Massa said after meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the Planalto Palace.
“This resolves the process that at some point hindered the drought and that made Argentina lose 21% of its exports,” the presidential candidate added.
The two countries also renewed the Sao Tome-So Borja agreement, which is named after two border cities in Argentina and Brazil and which allows managing the administrative processes of customs and border crossing through an international passage that moves 60% of bilateral trade, according to Massa.
“Argentina and Brazil are indissoluble partners from the commercial and cultural point of view, beyond mandatory regional integration,” Massa said.
“Both countries also renewed a flag reserve agreement that will allow the construction of their respective river fleets, a process that Argentina and Brazil had built over 20 years, which had been interrupted in the government of President (Jair) Bolsonaro (2019-2022),” Massa said.
In parallel, both nations lifted restrictions on the poultry trade due to a case of bird flu.
Inaugurated in 1997, the So Tomé-So Borja international bridge is one of the most important between Brazil and Argentina due to the volume of trade that passes through it.
