Buenos Aires Herald, Argentina

’We can’t even manage to send a lemon to the US,’ CFK

26 March 2012

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner questioned US president Barack Obama’s recent decision to suspend trade benefits for Argentina, while complaining that “we can’t even manage to get one of our lemons to enter the US market.”

“We have to pay attention to these little trade wars and guerrillas, that we will try to address this in the most civilized and legal way possible,” she said in reference to the Obama administration’s decision, in a ceremony at the Government House.

She then recalled that Argentina has not been able to export beef to the US and that “not even one of our lemons can enter their market,” even though none of those products are part of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programme, which waives import duties on thousands of goods from developing countries.

She also ratified that the goal of her economic model “is growth that includes social inclusion” clarifying that “this isn’t just about any kind of growth.”

“Any kind of growth is not good enough for us. That’s why we keep asking for support from every sector in the country. We have managed to achieve a very important synergy and we will maintain it with a little bit of intelligence. We must not give up whenever we run into tough times,” the Head of State said.

The President’s statements came in response to Barack Obama’s decision on Monday to punish Argentina by suspending trade benefits for the country due to its failure to comply with rulings from the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) that benefit two US corporations.