Spain supports Argentina as a priority country for the Fund for the Internationalisation of Companies

This channel will allow investment projects to be undertaken by Spanish companies in Argentina, in such sectors as infrastructure, energy, transport, housing, services, applied research and technological innovation. Furthermore, the Spanish Company for Export Credit (Spanish acronym: CESCE) has announced that it will once again cover operations with Argentina in the medium and long term.

For its part, the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones) and the Argentinean International Investment and Trade Agency have signed a partnership agreement under the auspices of the Bilateral Committee to boost relations between Spanish and Argentinean companies and to drive the internationalisation of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises from both countries. Mutual support has been established to promote investment and trade; as has the exchange of knowledge and good practices on internationalisation and collaboration to strengthen institutional relations with counterparts in third countries, principally from the region of Latin America and the Caribbean and from the European Union.

Both countries agreed on the need to step up mutually-beneficial economic and trade relations and to drive negotiations between the EU and MERCOSUR to reach an ambitious, balanced and mutually-beneficial agreement as soon as possible.

The agreement between the two blocs would mean the creation of a market of more than 700 million consumers. The trade in goods between the EU and MERCOSUR countries -Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay - amounted to more than 88 billion euros in 2015. The next round of talks will be held in Buenos Aires in March.

The EU is the leading trading partner of MERCOSUR, the largest foreign investor in the region and a major supplier of commercial services. EU companies annually pay more than 4 billion euros in customs tariffs for exports to MERCOSUR countries.

Direct foreign investment between the two blocs is also very significant. In 2014, the EU was the main source of direct foreign investment in MERCOSUR. The conclusion of this trade agreement would allow this investment to be consolidated and incentivised, with indisputable positive effects, such as the transfer of technology and knowledge, as well as the consequent creation of jobs.

More than 300 Spanish companies in Argentina

This visit will also serve to boost trade relations between the two countries, with great potential for growth. The trade balance shows that Spain exported goods and services to Argentina in 2016 for the sum of 852 million euros, principally comprising industrial machinery, automobile components and electronic equipment. Our imports amounted to 1.53 billion euros in 2016, above all in animal feed, fish products and fruit, vegetables and pulses. Spain consequently has a deficit in the trade balance for the sum of 677 million euros.

With an investment stock of 6.42 billion euros in 2014 (most recent figures available), Spain is the second-largest investor in Argentina, only behind the United States. More than 300 Spanish companies are established and consolidated in Argentina, in such sectors as telecommunications, energy, financial services and insurance, fisheries, textile, urban services, security, publishing houses and fashion. These investments provide work for 94,500 people in Argentina.

Argentina's investment stock in Spain amounts to 805 million euros, principally in pharmaceutical products, real estate activities, financial services and the extraction of crude oil.