RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Argentina downplayed US President Donald Trump’s decision to favor Brazil in supporting the country’s accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
According to La Nación, Argentina’s Foreign Ministry described the US initiative as a “logical decision” given the closeness of Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro and Trump.
“Bolsonaro has always been a Trump supporter, and it is entirely logical that Brazil now takes this position. For us, joining the OECD today would entail more problems than benefits,” the portfolio told the Argentinean media outlet.
Brazil’s prioritization was celebrated by Bolsonaro, for whom the Americans’ decision helps show the world “that Brazil is a viable country”. On Wednesday, January 15th, Bolsonaro also said that the country is “well advanced, ahead of Argentina” in terms of the necessary requirements for joining the OECD.
In an interview with Broadcast (the Estado Group’s real-time news system), Marcos Troyjo, special secretary of Foreign Trade and International Affairs of Bolsonaro’s government, spoke of a “strategic rapprochement” between the US and Brazilian presidents, and said that Argentina has lost the US preference for its “public policy that appears to stray from the principles advocated by the OECD”.
South America’s second-largest economy and one of Brazil’s main trading partners, Argentina began to lose US preference for entry into the OECD when Peronist Alberto Fernández defeated Mauricio Macri in the presidential race, still in 2019.
Macri, who was more pro-market, had won the presidency and imposed a defeat on populist leftist Cristina Kirchner, who is now Fernández’s vice-president.