Faurie: “Finding and opening markets for our products”

Meeting at the Argentine Rural Society

 “As the Foreign Minister, I have a challenge: to open, consolidate and make each of the countries represented here a destination market for our products,” stated Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie during the dinner held last night at the Argentine Rural Society, in the presence of the president of the organization, Luis Miguel Etchevere, and the diplomatic foreign corps accredited to Argentina.   “The representations abroad, which are over 150, need to be completely dedicated to this task. And the first part of our national production is, of course, that of the rural sector,” he stated.

“Since President Macri took office, Argentina has started a political, economic and institutional cycle that has clear rules and affords predictability,” highlighted the Foreign Minister during his speech at the dinner. Furthermore, he underscored that “within the framework of the Government’s goals, mainly that of zero poverty, there has been much work to stabilize macroeconomic variables, which are essential to productive investment and job creation.”

Faurie underscored “the commitment we have, from the highest political level, to the goal of improving Argentine people’s lives.” Without the help of our rural sector, that aspirational goal would be impossible to achieve,” he stated.

“The Argentine agricultural sector has excellent sanitary and environmental standards, so it is prepared to face the most stringent demands,” he remarked.

In addition, Faurie highlighted Argentina’s potential, and explained that “with a population of around 40 million, Argentina produces food for over 400 million people,” and he stated:  “our plan is to produce for 600 million people by 2020.”

“The President has made it clear: we want to stop being the “granary of the world” and become the “supermarket of the world.”  We have to add more and more value,” he said.

“We are working to strengthen all of our foreign bonds, which generates ample opportunities. We give high priority to MERCOSUR-UE negotiations, we have paved the way for partnering with the Pacific Alliance and we have again given the agricultural chapter the place it deserves on the agenda of solutions to all our bilateral exchanges,” Faurie stated.

Finally, he noted that in December Argentina will host the WTO Ministerial Conference, and he added that “at a time when the world is closing borders and creating barriers to trade, it is our duty as government officials and diplomats to strive to keep those channels open.”  Furthermore, in 2018, “we will have the responsibility of presiding over the G20; in other words, these are two strong and unequivocal undertakings that clearly signal our willingness to open up and interact with the world,” he concluded.

Press release No. 264/17

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