Lula negotiates use of Chinese currency in trade between Brazil and Argentina

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said, this Tuesday morning (22), that trade negotiations between Brazil and Argentina may dispense with the use of the dollar and begin to be carried out with the Yuan, the Chinese currency, since that the neighboring country is facing a serious economic crisis that makes the US currency practically inaccessible.

The statement was given during the weekly live broadcast from Johannesburg, South Africa, where Lula is participating in the BRICS Summit until Thursday (24). The broadcast had peaks of around three thousand people watching.

Lula again affirmed that commercial transactions between specific countries should be made in their local currencies or other reference currencies, which would later have their quotations adjusted by the central banks of each nation. The alternative has been defended since the beginning of the year, when he criticized the hegemony of the dollar in international transactions.

According to him, talks are already underway for Brazil’s trade with Argentina, the main trading partner in Latin America, to adopt a new monetary reference instead of the dollar.

“Right now, with the situation [de crise] from Argentina, the [Fernando] haddad [ministro da Fazenda] is talking and it is possible for us to help Argentina with the Chinese Yuan as currency. [Pra] do something different, something more serene, more mature, less pragmatic as is (sic) the rules established today that only favor the financial system”, said Lula.

For him, the countries – mainly the emerging ones – should not depend on the fluctuation of the dollar, since many of them are not even able to buy the currency. This, he said, is one of the subjects that will be discussed at the BRICS meeting in South Africa.

Lula defended Argentina’s entry into the Brics group and said that the loan that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) granted to the country in 2018, of US$ 56.3 billion, was approved only because of the electoral campaign in which the former President Maurício Macri was running for re-election. With the defeat, the debt, according to Lula, was left to Alberto Fernández with rules that suffocate the economy like a halter.

“I defend that our brothers from Argentina can participate in the Brics, let’s see at the meeting [da cúpula] how it is, whether it will be now or in a month, two months. It is very important for Argentina to be in the BRICS, Brazil cannot make an industrial development policy without remembering that Argentina is a country that has to grow together with Brazil”, he added, emphasizing the same speech to other neighboring nations.