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Strong economic recovery: preventing market distortions will be important to sustained growth

Argentina has successfully emerged from one of the worst recessions in its history, and the economy has been growing at a fast pace since 2003, according to a WTO Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of Argentina.

The report notes that the recovery has come hand-in-hand with the adoption of a wide range of policy measures that have included the abandonment of a fixed exchange rate, the renegotiation and reduction of the external debt, and government intervention in domestic price formation. Although Argentina’s heterodox mix of measures has, arguably, underpinned its remarkable economic turnaround, the report states that the systemic implications for the global economic system of such a strategy and whether it will prevent another boom-bust cycle in Argentina remain open questions.

The report also mentions that a successful transition to a sustainable growth path calls for policy measures to avoid economic overheating and prevent market distortions from becoming entrenched, and that attracting investment is important to address emerging supply constraints, and depends in part on enhancing investor confidence. It also stresses the importance of the international economic environment, which Argentina can help shape by continuing to play an active role in the Doha Development Agenda (DDA)

The report, along with a policy statement by the government of Argentina will be the basis for the second Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Argentina by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 12 and 14 February 2007.The following documents are available in MS Word format.

• Secretariat report
> Contents and summary observations (12 pages, 98KB)
> Economic environment (15 pages, 538KB)
> Trade and investment regimes (14 pages, 118KB)
> Trade policies and practices by measure (72 pages, 924KB)
> Trade policies by sector (43 pages, 276KB)
> Appendix tables (16 pages, 783KB)

• Government report (41 pages, 1464KB)

• Revisions of the above documents may be issued approximately 2 weeks after the meeting.

• Chairperson's concluding remarks

• Minutes of the meeting are available approximately 6 weeks after the meeting.

• Questions and answers by WTO Members are available approximately 6 weeks after the meeting.

Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements, in which member countries trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals. Significant developments that may have an impact on the global trading system are also monitored. For each review, two documents are prepared: a policy statement by the government of the member under review, and a detailed report written independently by the WTO Secretariat. These two documents are then discussed by the WTOs full membership in the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB). These documents and the proceedings of the TPRBs meetings are published shortly afterwards.

Print copies of previous TPR publications are available for sale from the WTO Secretariat, Centre William Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1211 Geneve 21 and through the on-line bookshop.

The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States.

European Communities: 26 and 28 February 2007
Australia: 5 and 7 March 2007
Canada: 21 and 23 March 2007