Massa to broker imports from Brazil paid in Argentine pesos

Massa to broker imports from Brazil paid in Argentine pesos

Argentina’s Economy Minister Sergio Massa will travel to Brazil alongside President Alberto Fernández to find credit alternatives through which to spend fewer dollars in bilateral trade, it was reported.

According to Argentine media, Brazil will finance an export that will be paid directly in pesos to Brazilian companies, which will then convert those pesos into reais. The issue has already been discussed in previous meetings between Massa and his Brazilian counterpart, Fernando Haddad.

Massa has already brokered further disbursements from the International Monetary Fund, made a yuan swap with China, and is now he opening the door to a new negotiating table with Brazil to curb the US dollar from soaring against the Argentine currency.

“Four options are being negotiated” with Haddad and with Brazilian Secretary of the Treasury Gabriel Galipolo, in addition to Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, who is also Industry and Trade Minister, it was reported. The operation would be labeled “an export credit,” in Galipolo’s words, who also told local media that under Michel Temer and Jair Bolsonaro Brazil stopped financing its exports and compensation mechanisms with Argentina, which allowed the advance of China.

“In the last five years, due to Brazil’s lack of mechanisms to finance Brazilian exports and Argentine imports, we have lost approximately 6 billion dollars of space in the trade balance with Argentina to China, which has been providing financing mechanisms in alternative means of payment, such as swap, or giving credit to the exporter,” the official was quoted as saying by GloboNews.