The ambassador-designate to the United States, Gerardo Werthein, said this on Thursday Javier Milei’s government will seek an alternative trade deal with Washington for lithium and critical minerals. Also an investment treaty and it will open to special office and in Silicon Valley for the promotion of new technologies, in front of the embassy and the six consulates that Argentina has in that country.
This occurred in the framework of the presentation to the Senate Agreements Committee of the six political ambassadors appointed by Javier Milei, including – in addition to Werthein, in the United States – Mariano Caucino, in India; Ian Sielecki, in France; Axel Wahnish, in Israel; Guillermo Nielsen, at Paraguay and Sonia Cavallo, at OAS.
Everyone demands that their specifications be confirmed and, when it was thought that it would be a difficult session with Kirchnerism, the session was smooth, except for the questions of the Christian Anabel Fernández Sagasti to Wahnish by Milei’s desire to move the Argentine embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This put him in difficulty. Also because they questioned the reduction of the budget in science and culture.
Regarding the agreement with the United States, Werthein said that “with regards to mining, it is crucial to promote a sectoral agreement with the United States, especially for lithium and other minerals. This agreement exists within the framework of the agreement Inflation Reduction Actbut to use it you need to have a free trade agreement with the United States.”
The businessman added that “it is important to seek an alternative mineral deal to access subsidies for batteries containing Argentine lithium.”
“On the other hand, we will closely follow the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) initiative, a US proposal that brings together countries interested in investing in critical mining.”
Caucino, for his part, argues that “India’s growing role globally has led it to become the fifth largest economy in the world behind the United States, China, Japan and Germany. At this level, the sustained increase in Argentine trade until reaching the record of 6.5 billion dollars in 2022”.
Source: Clarin
