During a conference with his Mercosur peers on the opening day of the bloc's 62nd summit, Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa said that “in order to strengthen intra-Mercosur trade, it is essential to consolidate local currency agreements among our countries.”
Massa insisted on “coordinating the use of local currencies in trade within the bloc”. He argued that “beyond the moment of crisis that Argentina is going through with the worst drought in history, the use of local currencies in bilateral trade relieves the pressure on the use of reserves and on the exchange rate issue”.
With wider use of Chinese yuans, the Argentine Government has been trying to stop the outflow of dollars, since the BCRA's net reserves are believed to be about US$ 5 billion in the red. Since 2008, there has been a mechanism for the payment of commercial transactions between Mercosur partners without using dollars for a period of up to 360 days. In January, an agreement was reached with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to extend this system, but its use is still limited.
Source: en.mercopress.com