Released in the fourth week of the month, the report assesses the latest developments in Argentina’s foreign trade. The country is top 10 worldwide in terms of surface and it has exceptional climate diversity. Benefiting from rich natural resources, it has a well-diversified industrial base and an active export-oriented agricultural sector. As such, it is not surprising that around 70% of Argentina’s exports are agricultural products and manufactures of agricultural origin. Most of the exports are directed to Brazil, which has been traditionally Argentina’s most important trading partner. While trade with China was negligible until the early 1990s, it has been growing fast to become Argentina's second-largest trading partner by the end of the first decade of the 2000s.
Other major trading partners are the United States and the European Union, with which a free trade treaty has been signed together with other Mercosur members in the middle of 2019. With this in mind, the report describes the evolution of Argentina’s foreign trade by category of imports (capital goods, intermediate goods, consumer goods, etc.) and exports (primary products, manufactures, fuels, etc.), distinguishing between prices and quantities. It also analyses trade flows at the country level, identifying changes in the ranking of the main trading partners and discussing the main driving factors behind those changes (trade treaty between the US and China, impact of the new treaty with the EU, changes in competitiveness across countries, etc.). Last but not least, the report discusses the impact of domestic policies in shaping foreign trade (quantitative restrictions to imports, multiple exchange rates, etc.). Understanding developments in foreign trade in one of the largest food producers is important because food drives the world and adequate food supply is of primary concern for most people on earth.
