Brazil and Argentina are discussing proposals for the creation of a common currency, confirmed President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) this Monday (23).
“What we are trying to work on now is that our finance ministers, each with their own economic team, can make us a proposal for foreign trade and transactions between the two countries, which will be done in a common currency to be built with much debate. , many meetings. This is what will happen”, said Lula, during a speech in the neighboring country, where she met with Argentine President Alberto Fernandez.
“If it were up to me, we would always have foreign trade in the currencies of other countries so that we don’t have to depend on the dollar. Why not try to create a common currency among Mercosur countries? Why not try to create a common currency among the BRICS countries?” he said.
“I think that over time this will happen and it needs to happen, because countries often have difficulty acquiring the dollar and you can make agreements, establish a type of fashion for trade that central banks can, every month or in the as long as they want, settle scores so that countries can continue doing business,” he said.
Earlier, the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, had commented on the possibility of a mechanism to facilitate commercial transactions with Argentina to limit dependence on the dollar.
According to research by CNN economics analyst Raquel Landim, the two countries formed a working group to assess the viability of a “South American unit of account”. The mechanism, which had been called common currency, was renamed to avoid confusion.
The proposal would be more similar, for the time being, to financing the export of Brazilian products to Argentina and vice versa, according to the investigation. The objective is that bilateral exchanges can be carried out without using the dollar, since Argentina’s international reserves are only US$ 7 billion.
Brazilian financing
When commenting on possible Brazilian help to finance infrastructure projects, Lula mentioned the availability of the BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development) to help with projects such as the gas pipeline that will take gas from Argentina to other countries, such as Brazil.
“If there is interest from businessmen and the government and we have a development bank for that, I want to say that we are going to create the conditions for us to make the financing that we can do to help with the Argentine gas pipeline”, he said.
“I am sure that Brazilian businessmen are interested in the gas pipeline and fertilizers that Argentina has, and in Argentina’s scientific and technological knowledge”.
*Posted by Ligia Tuon
Source: CNN Brasil
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