Oil companies Chevron and Total have pledged to increase investment in the country by a total of $ 1,030 million by 2023. During his stay in Houston, Texas, the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, held extensive meetings. with the oil and gas sector.
On a rainy and gray afternoon in Washington, Minister Sergio Massa met his economic team to address a key day of his visit to the United States this Monday: a meeting at the Treasury with David Lipton and another at the International Monetary Fund, with the head of the organization, Kristalina Georgieva.
The same day must also culminate the program review process with the IMF, Argentina’s performance in the last quarter, which if approved would open a outlay of over 4,000 million dollars for the coffers of the Central.
Fund technicians, led by Luis Cubeddu, and the great Argentine economic team led by economic adviser Leonardo Madcur, worked all week at the agency’s headquarters, sharpening the numbers to close the audit accounts.
Experts believe it is easier for the Fund negotiate with a more pragmatic and less ideological minister like the Tigrense and Massa he is confident that the revision will be passed without problems. He is elated by the arrival of money from the liquidation of soy at the plant and believes that increasing reserves not only brings him closer to achieving goals with the IMF, but also gives him political power.
This Monday we will see what the outcome of the review is and the recommendations the IMF makes to Argentina for the next quarter, which will be much more complicated ahead. The Management Board should then approve the technical report.
Also for the two high-profile meetings this Monday The head of the Central Bank, Miguel Angel Pesce, and the former Minister of Economy and now president of Banco Nación, Silvina Batakis, arrived. He had been in Washington for more than a month meeting both officials and with his presence they try to give some continuity to the process.
At 10 am in Washington, at 11 am in Argentina, Massa will go to the Treasury Department, a few steps from the White House, where he will be received by Lipton, special adviser to Secretary Janet Yellen; Michael Kaplan, assistant secretary for the western hemisphere, and Andy Baukol, assistant secretary for international affairs.
Massa will present his “Macroeconomic regulation” plan. and it will ratify, as it has done in all sectors, that it will achieve the objectives of the program. the minister will not ask the United States for any kind of help with the Fund, Unless something gets complicated. The political “ace” is reserved in case something gets stuck.
It is estimated that he will go to the meeting with Georgieva, which will be at 15:00, Argentine time, at the headquarters of the IMF, with the entire technical package closed and that It will alleviate possible unknowns. Massa will try to give the Bulgarian confidence that he will achieve the goals of the agreement, which includes a adjustment of the fiscal deficit at the end of the year to 2.5% and approximately $ 5.8 billion of reserves in the central area in December, in addition to removing energy subsidies.
The dialogue is likely to focus on what comes next, how Massa will make the cuts ahead, what his plans are to lower inflation, what the pillars for growth will be, and how much support he will have. The minister will also try to prove that he has done so more political support than its predecessors, something that is of great interest to the Fund and that can be seen on this tour in Washington.
Massa will also raise an issue at the Treasury that he discussed in his meetings at the White House and the State Department. The minister wants the United States green light to an agreement for the automatic exchange of financial information for detect about 100,000 million dollars (in government calculations) that Argentines may have in US bank accounts.
So far, the AFIP consultations they are made on a case-by-case basis, on request. The Government demands that they can be carried out automatically, that is, without the need to deal with each issue in a particular way.
“We will also raise it on Monday at the Treasury because it is the specific place,” he said Clarione the ambassador to Washington Jorge Argüello. This proposal to the US “will not be indifferent to it and, on the contrary, I think we will be able to reach a quick agreement because the USA. not interested in presenting itself as a refuge for tax evaders “.
From the minister’s delegation they do not seem so optimistic that something will come out soon. Also, subject matter experts residing in this country they doubt it will thrive for fear of “political use” of this tool.
consulted by Clarione, Cristian Francos, a Washington DC resident lawyer specializing in litigation and complex financial crimes, stressed that these automatic agreements “do not apply to all countries, because what the United States wants to avoid is that the information – very extensive – with which The IRS (the collection agency of the United States) is used for political purposes, “he said.
Another expert who lives in the United States and is very familiar with international financial mechanisms told this correspondent “I see very unlikely that such a deal will come out.” He added that “the United States has nothing to gain from a fiscal point of view (the number of accounts of US individuals and companies in the Argentine financial system is extremely low) and that the conditions do not exist to ensure responsible and confidential use of information. exchanged. So, if I were in the US administration, I would either reject the idea or ask for much more in return politically. “
However, experts say that nothing is impossible and perhaps it isThe Biden government wants to give the minister a strong endorsement.
Paola Lugone
Source: Clarin
