Contemporary Foreign and Economic Policies of Argentina

I. Introduction
Official Name : Argentine Republic
Capital : Buenos Aires
Government : Federal Presidential Constitutional Republic
Argentina is a country located in South America. It covers most of the southern portion
of the continent. It is considered as 8th largest country, it occupies an area more extensive than
Mexico and the U.S state of Texas combined. It encompasses immense plains, deserts, tundra,
and forests, as well as tall mountains, rivers, and thousands of miles of ocean shoreline.
Argentina also claims a portion of Antarctica, as well as several islands in the South Atlantic,
including the British-ruled Falkland Islands(Islas Malvinas)
Argentina is a federal constitutional republic and representative democracy.The
government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the Constitution of
Argentina, the country's supreme legal document. The seat of government is the city of Buenos
Aires, as designated by Congress.Suffrage is universal, equal, secret and mandatory.
Argentina has long played an important role in the continent’s history. Following three
centuries of Spanish colonization, Argentina declared independence in 1816, and Argentine
nationalists were instrumental in revolutionary movements elsewhere, a fact that prompted
20th-century writer Jorge Luis Borges to observe, “South America’s independence was, to a
great extent, an Argentine enterprise.” Torn by strife and occasional war between political
factions demanding either central authority (based in Buenos Aires) or provincial autonomy,
Argentina tended toward periods of caudillo, or strongman, leadership, most famously under
the presidency of Juan Perón. The 1970s ushered in a period of military dictatorship and
repression during which thousands of presumed dissidents were “disappeared,” or murdered;
this ended in the disastrous Falklands Islands War of 1982, when Argentina invaded the South
Atlantic islands it claimed as its own and was defeated by British forces in a short but bloody
campaign. Defeat led to the fall of the military regime and the reestablishment
of democratic rule, which has since endured despite various economic crises.
The country’s name comes from the Latin word for silver, argentum, and Argentina is
indeed a great source of valuable minerals. More important, however, has been Argentina’s
production of livestock and cereals, for which it once ranked among the world’s wealthiest
nations.
II.Body

 Economic Policy
In order to exit from the recession, a competitive exchange rate policy was
implemented in relation to the trading partners, which was both floating and stable in
purchasing power terms. Some studies — Frenkel (2003), Frenkel and Taylor (2006) and
Frenkel and Ros In the wake of the crisis: Argentina’s new economic and labour policy
directions 18 (2004) — show that the exchange rate has impacts on employment which can be
seen through three channels of influence. The first of them, the macro-economic, is provided by
local firms which recover international competitiveness in the short term. This, accompanied by
appropriate fiscal and monetary policies, facilitates a new level of activity, which allows the
hiring of new workers after the use of overtime has been exhausted12. A second channel is
development which is similar to the use of industrial promotion incentives which achieve virtual
import substitution. Development protects domestic production and also generates an impetus to
conquer external markets, which can act on employment in the long term through the incentive
to production and export of tradable, manufactured goods and upstream and downstream chains
(suppliers and customers). It operates in the medium term. The third channel, longer term,
which the authors characterize as labor intensity (which we could call productivity, as it
redefines the role of work vis-à-vis technology) protects domestic production in practice and
induces the use of appropriate technologies which do not discriminate against labour.

 Foreign Policies
Argentina is active in the G20, United Nations, and WTO. It served most
recently on the UN Economic and Social Council from 2015-2017, on the United Nations
Security Council from 2013-2014, and the UN Human Rights Council from 2013-2016.
Argentina hosts the 11th Ministerial Conference of WTO Ministers in December 2017 and will
host the G20 in 2018. In 2016 Argentina announced its ambition to seek membership of the
OECD.
The Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur), which includes Argentina,
Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela (now suspended), is Argentina's most important
trade agreement. It applies a common external tariff on most products.  Together the five
Mercosur countries encompass approximately 72 per cent of the territory of South America
(12.8 million km2, equivalent to three times the area of the European Union) and close to 70
per cent of the South American population. It totals 285.0 million inhabitants and combined
GDP of $3.5 trillion according to World Bank data (2015). Associate members of Mercosur
include Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Bolivia which is in the process
of becoming a full member.  Mexico is an Observer.
Argentina is also a member of the Union of South American Nations
(UNASUR), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the
Organization of American States (OAS), that seek to advance a variety of regional political and
economic interests.
Brazil is Argentina's largest trading partner, followed by China and the United
States. Argentina is increasingly looking to China as a source of investment, particularly in
infrastructure.  China will invest around US$30 billion in energy, agriculture and transport
infrastructure and mining projects.
Goals of Foreign Policy

 Safeguard relations with neighbors

 Policy of non-involvement in other countries national politics
 Increase economic independence
 Be a medium power in Latin America
 Support for democratic governments in Latin America
 Recover the Falklands island through diplomatic means