Sergio Massa is already embarking on his first trip to the United States as Minister of Economy, Agriculture and Production. There he will meet the directors of international financial organizations with which Argentina maintains a large debt and plans meetings with the CEOs of large companies.

It is possible that on his return Massa will start organizing his trip to France to discuss Argentina’s debt to the Paris Club. But on your team They have stopped talking about a destination to which he will not go for now: Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

A key fact hinders relations with Qatar. The Arab country wants the Senate to approve the Mutual Investment Promotion and Protection Treaty. But, amid the local contradictions, while more investments and more exports are required, at the same time the legislation necessary to facilitate them is interrupted.

At the end of last week the Argentina-Qatari Binational Chamber of Commerce was launched in Buenos Aires, which Facundo Chidini will preside. In the meeting in a hotel in Buenos Aires Present were the Secretary of Production, Ignacio de Mendiguen, the Undersecretary of International Trade, Guillermo Merediz, and the diplomat Carlos Hernández, specialist in the Middle East. While from Doha, the Argentine ambassador to Qatar, Guillermo Nicolás, sent his congratulations. For now there is no Doha endorsement, as the Argentines are asking.

The treaty began to be managed in November 2016 when Mauricio Macri’s former vice president Gabriela Michetti signed it during a trip to Qatar. This has established a framework of guarantees of transparency, predictability and security for the Arabs, who demand that there are not “arbitrariness” or “discrimination” in bilateral exchange.

The agreement, which potentially allowed the country’s first foreign investment during the Macri government, signed a few $ 1,300 million for Argentina in three phases between the Qatar Investment Authority and ANSES Sustainability Guarantee Fund.

Qataris have said they want to invest in strategic areas such as infrastructure, energy and mines. Argentines could export grains, processed foods, livestock, fishing, fruit, medicines, services.

An investment model that the Arabs are implementing in Argentina is the one signed with Kuwait by governors Juan Schiaretti and Omar Perotti, for which the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development has granted a loan of 50 million dollars to finance the start of construction of the Córdoba-Santa Fe interprovincial aqueduct.

Had the deal with Qatar been approved, it would have been the first of its kind signed since 2001. But at the time, with a solid position in Congress, former President Cristina Kirchner criticized these types of deals for considering them as “exploiters and anti-Argentines”.

At the same time, an unusual situation arose due to a lawsuit involving both Macri and Gaston Gaudio for its controversial intervention in bilateral relations with Qatar. The former tennis player sought some sort of private brokerage through his business contacts in Argentina and her friendship with Macri, which led Elisa Carrió to join the opposition to the agreement and separate the athlete from government and Qatar ties. .

Strong opposition to Kirchnerism led to the prosecution of the entire chain of officials from both sides who participated in the negotiations with Qatar, and even accused that country’s emir, Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, of a case that justice has finally closed.

Although the case is no longer pending, the Gaudio scandal bogged down the treatment of the bill in Congress. The legislator instead approved the end of double taxation but left the protection of investments to the Deputies with a half penalty, which must be approved in the Senate.

Qatar, like other states, requires minimal approval of this Treaty, not to invest immediately but to be able to do so “start talking”. A similar situation is experienced with the United Arab Emirates.

The actual implementation of these agreements lasts no less than a year due to other factors of the country’s economy, such as transparent compliance with its international financial commitments and the need to achieve inflation close to the figure. The latter was a direct question during the negotiation process of the Qatar Agreement: how would the government achieve single-digit inflation.

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