Argentina: Milei wants to reverse rapprochement with China | DW News

Now when he was still campaigning Argentina’s new president Javier M threatened to cut ties with Beijing favoring trade with the US and Europe but after 23 years of negotiations a European free trade deal still seems to be a long way off that leaves none other than China as an increasingly important

Trading partner for Argentina something that is softening the Hardline anti- Beijing stance of the country’s new president Martin sturla breeds cows for sale to cattle at his home 100 km from buenos Isis he also sends cattle embryos to Spain and Portugal he’d hoped the mercosur EU trade pact would help him

Ramp up exports but former president Alberto Fernandez put the brakes on it supposedly to protect the beef industry however his successor Javier mle supports the deal Europe has hid its livestock ceiling and cannot Supply anymore and we were historically the main producers and exporters of beef to Europe and to the United

States but the main export destination for Argentine beef is China Javier mle had branded China and Brazil communist threatening to freeze diplomatic relations and yet as president he’s already initiated talks with both [Applause] Nations that’s usually the case that as they get closer to power they become more moderate in some expressions and

That has been reflected in foreign policy in recent months from very black and white ideological positions to pragmatic Visions while many foreign companies are wary of investing in Argentina in the face of an ongoing economic crisis China is continuing to expand its involvement there the country is of great importance

For China’s raw materials policy companies such as ganang and sieging Mining have secured access to lucrative lithium deposits in Argentina when Argentina joined the Chinese belt and Road initiative in February 2022 both countries agreed on joint projects worth 24 billion US trade between the two countries is also growing steadily in 2022 China

Became Argentina’s most important supplier For the First Time ahead of Brazil with a strong upward Trend in Imports with Javier Mal’s contradictory statements on China it’s unclear which direction the new Argentine president will take let’s get more of tww China and this Clifford kunan he joins me now in

The studio Clifford can Argentina afford to turn its back on its seemingly most important trading partner well I think um it’s kind of difficult to work out exactly what’s going on here because as with many populist leaders um you see you you’ve seen as anti China stance

Whereas um the back channels have been much more consiliary towards China China I don’t think Argentina can afford to turn its back on on China but I think what this is more a question of is that Argentina is turning more focusing more on the US so a lot of the roles that

China has taken until now um I think Argentina is hoping that the US will step in because he is very anti-communist he made this very clear during the elections he called China an assassin um in recent days um there’s been reports on social media how he’s saying telling people don’t be communist

Which may or may not be um satirical it’s quite hard to work out sometimes with these social media of his but um I think basically it’s as much a a looking towards the us as it is turning away from from China so don’t be communist from the Argentinian leader but also

There’s a Reliance there what’s at stake for China what about the other side well a lot of this has to do with China’s belt and Road Project which is a massive in infrastructure investment program and and for China um it’s positioning itself very much as the champion of the global

South and Argentina um and many Latin American countries are also within this grouping um China is also a leader in the bricks organization of with Brazil Russia and India uh look and South Africa and he uh has said mle has said that Argentina will no longer join that

So um in in many ways it’s it’s pulling out of of this traditional sphere of influence that China is trying to build build up at the moment so it’s it has quite serious ramifications for for Beijing and what then is the specific reaction to mle and his moves then after

You look at the big picture for where Argentina fits in um I always get the sense that Beijing can be quite easily wrong-footed by populist leaders because um because there’s a certain lack of coherence uh about how about their their uh policies uh what Beijing is doing has

Been to um initially was one it was angry it it got rid of a debt uh swap a currency swap agreement which is a way of using Chinese currency to do part of Argentina’s business um but it now looks like there’s back channels that are happening there that shows that a lot of

This maybe Bluster on mle’s part that like a lot of countries he’s just eager to to play Both Sides whichever country is going to help Argentina’s interests and I think um one thing that we we’ve seen from that that that is his primary concern is that he wants to boost

Argentina’s role happy to to boost its position with with uh the United States but at the same time I think he’s he he must know somewhere that he has to be careful not to completely alienate China so not meaning what he says welcome to politics I guess thank you so

Much in Argentina trade unions and leftist parties are protesting against a raft of controversial reforms decreed by the new far-right populist president Javier mle thousands of people have rallied in Buenos iris against the plans to deregulate the economy calling on the courts to declare the plans unlawful M’s wide ranging plans include

Loosening laws protecting workers and ditching rules preventing the privatization of State companies mle says he’s pressing ahead anyway with measures he says are necessary to tackle economic Decline and rampant inflation shopping in Argentina’s capital buenos Ares Merchants are eager for foreign currency and the rate seems to change by the hour

Within just days of an emergency decree deregulating the economy new president Javier M campaigned on promises to free Argentina from Decades of mismanagement he’s now delivering on those promises to reduce government intervention in the Economy since we took office we have been focused on trying to contain the enormous crisis We inherited for this we designed a shock stabilization plan that includes a fiscal adjustment program adjusting the foreign exchange rate to market value and a monetary policy that includes cleaning up the Central

Bank inflation is running at over 160% for this year and nearly half the country lives in poverty but many people disagree with mle’s plans including his telling people that things will get worse before they get better less than two weeks into Power this government has already lied to the

People and not only lied but is destroying an entire country I’m here for the people who did not vote for him and also for those who voted for him believing that he was going to be beneficial for the country on the contrary this new president has given away the country Mle called a special session of the legislature starting this week they must sign off on his decrees if the Congress fails to take action the reforms go into full effect at the end of the month let’s go straight to our correspondent Alejandro Rosio in Buenos AES during his campaign mle promised

Radical changes one of them appears to be this decree to change or eliminate more than 300 rules regul Argentina’s economy and politics can you give us a sense of what these measures would do well if the Congress does not reject the decree if the Justice does not

Reject the decree because there are some trials against the decree from people that says that say that this decree is against the Argentina’s Constitution well this will be a huge reol Revolution for Argentina’s econ economy from a close economy to an open economy from an economy with a a big participation of

The state to a free market economy almost without regulation but people in November has voted melee because of his promises of dollarization to eliminate the national currency the peso and his critics against the political cast but not necessarily for these free market uh regulations and yet it’s been a little over two

Weeks since Malay took office and we have already seen various protests against his reform plans what specifically are people protesting well people are protesting because inflation is rising from 160% in November to more than 200% in December and the wages are not Rising so much uh the new government has also Frozen a

Social sub that receive 1.2 million people in 2024 above the high inflation H they are protesting against the labor reform by decree ER that eliminates all kind of punishment again against informal employment H they are protesting ER because ER the new government is also taking away the unions from the health

Sector and giving it to the private sector and they are protesting also against the demonstration regulations that punish all kind of blockades and do not allow the people to H demon to do the demonstrations in the on the street but only on the sidewalk now you’ve hinted at the fact

That this decree is not a done deal Congress for example could still yet syn mle’s plans and they’re going to be debating uh that plan decree this week um How likely do you think it is to go through well it’s difficult because because the mes party the freedom

Advances has only uh 38 of the 257 deputies and only seven from 72 Senators so he needs H to do alliances with a provincial parties with center right parties he can get some uh support from prop Republican proposal the party from former president makri but he need Al he

Needs also the center parties the provincial parties and also some part of the peronist opposition and this is would be very difficult that’s why yesterday he said that if the Congress rejects the decree he will organize a referend and also he says that some opposition leaders ask him for bribes

But this opposition leader has denies denied these kind of accusations Alejandra thank you very much for your reporting that is Alejandra Rosio in Buenos

When he was still campaigning, Argentina’s new president Javier Milei threatened to cut ties with Beijing, favoring trade with the US and Europe. But after 23 years of negotiations, a European free-trade deal still seems to be a long way off. That leaves none other than China as an increasingly important trading partner for Argentina – something that is softening the hard anti-Beijing stance of the country’s new president.

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