Under the leaden sky of Beijing, Sergio Massa crossed the political capital of China today with presidential treatment. Several motorcycles have given way to the entourage. And at the Saint Regis hotel, where he stays and the American and Chinese flags fly together, the caretakers stand guard 24 hours a day in front of the suite where the finance minister is staying. Moreover, this pomp transcends the protocol of a bureaucracy inspired by Confucius and which usually gives its signals in this way.
Massa has had encounters with officials at the top of power They also gave him other kinds of signals. At the nine-course banquet and with small cups of rice liquor for the kan-pai, that white-ground toast, so common here, had to beanswer several questions.
They raised the lack of fluidity of trade, excessive anti-dumping investigations which in the Argentine case account for 50% of the complaints China faces to the World Trade Organization, the delay in addressing an agreement for avoid double taxation of Chinese companies based in Argentina and even he insisted on the need for a free trade agreement with Mercosura path taken by Uruguay.
The banquet was offered at the residence of the chancellery where he had already stayed in 2017 invited by the Chinese Communist Party.
There he had a long conversation with Xiu Xiaoqui, the Chinese government’s special representative for Latin American affairs. Curious, the Chinese seem to mirror the US. Massa has an rvery close, almost fraternal relationship with Juan González Washington Special Representative for Latin America.
In Xiaoqui meal seated between Massa and Pesce and according to one witness “subjected them to a two-hour interrogation”. I also wanted to knowthe definitions of political parties, how sectors considered strategic will grow, such as mining, energy and agri-food, and what progress will be in trade with the yuan. Xuaoqui was interested in the region and asked him how he thought the evolution of Colombia could be after the triumph of Petro and the succession of López Obrador in Mexico. “Argentina has a destiny of progress in a world of proteins, minerals and technology. We are complementary partners but we don’t want to be harassed with falsehoods”, he launched in one of the toasts when he stated Neutrality regarding the adoption of 5G technology led by Huawei in the sense that every company can choose.Massa told him about the drama of the drought and an optimistic vision for energy independence with pipelines, the development of lithium and minerals, as well as the productivity jump due to the application of the knowledge economy in the sector. “We will export $180 billion in 2030,” he promised.
The official, who visited 12 Latin American countries after the pandemic, replied: “You suffer US colonizer attacks for the dollar and extortion of the multilaterals (organizations such as the IMF). We cooperate, we do not extort,” she said, reiterating that China supports the country on the board of directors of the IMF.
Hours earlier, Massa was received by powerful Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in those huge Soviet-style government buildings. Wentao was direct when he said it import controls and restrictions should be relaxed, as they glided into the entourage.
He is none other than the promoter of a more open China trying to offer new incentives to multinationals amid tensions with the United States. This week was with Elon Musk, on his first trip to China after the pandemic, just when it became known that Tesla, the Musk electric vehicle launched worldwide in 2008 outsold Toyota. Musk has called for cooperation between China and the United States. He’s not the only one. Tim Cook, the head of Apple, Jamie Dimon, that of JP Morgan and Starbucks’ Laxman Narasimhan spoke similarly to Wentao these days.
In turn, in the meeting with the vice president of Eximbank, Zhang Wencai, Massa obtained good news for his friend of radicalism, Gerardo Morales: $210 million to expand world’s tallest solar farm Cauchari in Jujuy at 4,000 meters high. There were also lines of financing for the completion of the Arauco solar and wind farm in La Rioja and for the completion of works on Belgrano Cargas, San Martín and Urquiza.
Today it will be the turn of the Secretary of Agriculture Juan José Bahillo who has brought a list of demands: resume exports of poultry closed due to bird flu and which represent 45% of shipments from Argentina, open exports of bovine and pork offal is that China brings in grain from the wet pampas.
Beijing, special envoy
Source: Clarin
