US should help Argentina find 'loterm solution' to IMF talks, says senior US congressman
The United States should do more to find a "loterm solution" for Argentina as it holds debt restructuring talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to Gregory Meeks, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs at the US House of Representatives.
Argentina - which has received $44 billion in credit from a $57 billion IMF programme signed in 2018 - is working to agree to a new financing programme with the IMF, and is seeking an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and to delay repayments for over four more years.
Meeks, who has been a congressman representing parts of New York City, assumed office as chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee since January.
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Speaking at an event organized by the New York-based Council of the Americas, Meeks said that the US "involvement should be to get everyone at the table to find a loterm solution for Argentina's debt to be restructured."
Additionally, Meeks said that that the US should ensure that any agreement with the IMF will "not protract the economic challenges also facing the country" during the Covid-19 pandemic.
"While it is vital to maintain confidence, it is also paramount that we get all the interested parties together to find a solution and do it as quickly as we can."
Previously, Argentine President Alberto Fernández - who inherited the loan from Mauricio Macri - has said that the debt is "unpayable" under current conditions.
Two weeks ago, Martín Guzmán, Argentina's Economy Minister, said that Argentina is making "progress" in its talks with the IMF, and that "very valuable support is being constructed" after meeting with his counterparts from Germany, Italy, Spain, France, as well as Pope Francis.
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"There are two questions here. On the financial side, what is sought is to be able to refinance the sum of the principal owed, plus interest," he was quoted as saying by the Buenos Aires Times. "On the other hand, regarding the bases of the program, the first premise is that there must be "ownership" - that is, a program that must be designed by Argentina on the basis of what the Argentine government considers a healthy vision to reassure the Argentine economy, [and] to solve the structural problems of the economy."
Guzmán added that for program to work, "it must have multiple levels of consensus and that is why the government is going to send the programme to Congress for approval there, so that macroeconomic stabilisation is not only government policy but also more general political policy of the State."
The primary objective, he said, "is to do it well rather than quickly."
"If it's done quickly, that's welcome, but the most important thing is to do it well, and doing it well requires precisely reaching those multiple consensuses that are necessary for the programme to have legitimacy and robustness."