VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #0792/01 1141023
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 241023Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7929
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHINGTON DC
INFO RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/HQ USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 6114
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 1198
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 6381
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 0359
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 5974
RUEHGT/AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA 0193
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ APR VILNIUS 0029
RUEHSO/AMCONSUL SAO PAULO 3256
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 2199

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000792 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
USDOC FOR 4322/ITA/MAC/OLAC/PEACHER 
PASS NSC FOR JOSE CARDENAS, ROD HUNTER 
PASS USTR FOR EEISSENSTAT, SCRONIN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EINV PREL VZ AR
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR MEETS ARGENTINE BUSINESS LEADERS 
 
¶1. (U) The following cable contains business-confidential 
information and should not be distributed via internet. 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Association of Argentine Businessmen (AEA) Directors, a 
who's who of Argentina's business elite, are generally upbeat on 
Argentina's medium term economic and business prospects.  In an 
April 18 lunch with the Ambassador, they supported greater GoA 
engagement with the USG on trade issues, but doubted the likelihood 
of substantive progress prior to elections.  They decried the short 
term, opportunistic orientation of Argentine businesses -- including 
their own -- that leads them to focus on quick returns and 
investment in primary commodity production rather than in more 
complex value added production.  To help Argentine business and 
government leaders better understand the global competitive 
environment in which Argentina operates, they suggested that the USG 
highlight the success of US and Argentine firms who have made long 
term investment commitments here and in Brazil pay off.  Ambassador 
noted that the "Americas Competitiveness Forum" in June would be a 
good place to explore these issues more in depth.  AEA Directors 
were pleased to see the USG expanding its competitiveness dialogue 
beyond the NAFTA countries.  On biofuels, they said that it would be 
good if Argentina were to participate more fully in the cooperation 
that the U.S. and Brazil had initiated.  On Venezuela, AEA Directors 
argued that the USG should regard incidents like Chavez's March 9 
anti-imperialist rally in Buenos Aires and related GoA populist 
statements as inconsequential and more show than substance.  End 
Summary 
 
----------------------------------------- 
A Who's Who of Argentina's Business Elite 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶3. (SBU) On April 18, Ambassador Tony Wayne, accompanied by DCM, 
Economic Counselor and Commercial Counselor, met over lunch with key 
members of the Board of Directors of AEA (Association of Argentine 
Businessmen), the premier private sector organization that 
represents the views of Argentine business leaders.  Participants 
included: Paolo Rocca, majority shareholder and President of 
Techint, Argentina's largest and most diversified industrial 
conglomerate with engineering, construction and services firms, 
including Tenaris, a world class steel producer; Luis Pagani, 
President of ARCOR, the world's largest producer of hard candies and 
a major supplier to Wal-Mart in the U.S; Aldo Roggio, Chairman of 
Roggio Holding, an infrastructure and services conglomerate whose 
investments include Buenos Aires Metro and Sanitation Services and 
the Rio de Janeiro Metro; Sebastian Bago, CEO of the leading local 
pharmaceutical firm in Argentina, Laboratorios Bago, which has a 
strong presence in Latin America and employs 4,800; Juan Bruchou, 
President of Citibank for Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, as well 
as President of both the Argentine Banking Association and the 
American Chamber of Commerce in Argentina; Carlos Miguens, head of 
the Bemberg Group, a major investment company with interests in 
mining and energy; Hector Magnetto, head of Grupo Dominio that 
controls Grupo Clarin, publisher of the largest Spanish-language 
daily newspaper in the world and owner of Argentina's leading cable 
television company; Eduardo Elsztain, Argentina's biggest real 
estate developer and Treasurer of the World Jewish Council; and 
Jaime Campos, Executive Director of the AEA. 
 
¶4. (SU) AEA Directors said they felt it important that Argentina 
and the United States enjoy a friendly and productive relationship 
which they said both sides needed to work harder to achieve.  While 
they recognized that some current GoA economic policies were 
inappropriate for dealing with challenges like inflation, they 
agreed that the economy was healthy and would continue to perform 
well in the medium term, especially given the country's budget and 
trade surpluses, the strong world economy and demand for Argentine 
commodities and the relatively debt-free status of Argentine 
consumers and producers.  They recognized that GoA spending had 
increased significantly during this electoral season, but were not 
overly concerned about the prospect of over-heating given the strong 
fiscal and foreign currency reserve situation the GoA enjoys. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Notwithstanding Argentina's spectacular and now five-year 
strong economic recovery, some business leaders called themselves 
justifiably cautious.  Techint's Rocca (whose company has 
progressively diversified the bulk of its assets outside of 
Argentina over the past decade) called his company in "survival" 
mode in regard to his holdings in Venezuela and Bolivia.  In 
contrast, Eduardo Elsztain called Argentina's economic crisis 
experience an "asset" that had tested the Argentine people, the 
economy and political system, and has prepared them to take 
advantage of the current economic cycle.  International capital 
markets certainly favor Argentine investment, he said, noting that a 
recent $150 million bond issue by his real estate company IRSA was 
five times oversubscribed. 
 
¶6. (SBU) AEA Directors supported greater GoA engagement with the USG 
on finance, trade and investment issues, but said that an election 
year was not really the best time to move forward aggressively on 
such a dialogue.  They said that the generally negative public 
perception of the U.S. in Argentina made the U.S. an easy target for 
election rhetoric.  Nevertheless, they seemed optimistic that this 
could be overcome, especially after the elections. 
 
-------------------------- 
Concern on Competitiveness 
-------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) A number of AEA Directors decried the short term, 
opportunistic orientation of Argentine businesses -- including their 
own -- that leads them to focus on quick returns rather than on 
investment in long term infrastructure development.  It also leads 
them to focus on investment in primary commodity production rather 
than on investment in more complex value added production. 
Ambassador asked how we can best encourage the GoA and both domestic 
and foreign investors to take a longer term market view.  Responses 
included highlighting the success of U.S. and Argentine firms who 
have made long term investment commitments here pay off.  It would 
also be helpful, they argued, if the USG could help demonstrate more 
clearly successful U.S. company operations in other countries, 
especially Brazil, as a means of helping Argentine business and 
government leaders to understand more clearly the competitive 
environment in which Argentina operates.  Ambassador and Commercial 
Counselor noted that the "Americas Competitiveness Forum" that 
Secretary of Commerce Gutierrez will host in June would be a good 
 
SIPDIS 
place to explore these issues more in depth.  AEA Directors were 
pleased to see that the USG was expanding its competitiveness 
dialogue beyond the NAFTA countries and expressed interest in 
receiving more information about it.  Mr. Rocca mentioned that 
U.S.(anti-dumping) prohibitions on imports of certain steel products 
over the last decade and a half were not helpful to his company. 
 
------------------------------ 
What is Argentina to the U.S.? 
------------------------------ 
 
¶8. (SBU) Arcor's Pagani spoke of a perception, strengthened 
following the recent POTUS tour, that Argentina is a distant second 
to Brazil in terms of U.S. Southern Cone priorities.  On biofuels, 
they said that it would be good if Argentina were to participate 
more fully in the alliance that the U.S. and Brazil had initiated. 
Ambassador explained that the goal was not to exclude anyone, but 
rather to engage Brazil in exploring ways that its extensive and 
highly successful alcohol fuels program could help the region to 
become more energy secure.  Interestingly, the business people felt 
that the growing importance of biofuels would make U.S. agricultural 
subsidies less of an impediment to future trade negotiations as 
world demand for grains expands. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Business leaders noted the unfortunate negative connotation 
that the term "Washington Consensus" engenders among policymakers 
and voters in the region as a set of neoliberal economic policies 
that did not produce positive results for the countries that 
implemented them.  They opined that the USG should seek to craft a 
new consensus that includes the economic policies that are contained 
in the "Washington Consensus," but which also includes other 
policies that would make the package more attractive to Latin 
American policymakers and voters. 
 
---------------------- 
The Venezuela Question 
---------------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Speaking about the issue of Hugo Chavez, AEA Directors 
asked whether the USG would allow things like the Chavez's March 9 
anti-imperialist rally in Buenos Aires during President Bush's visit 
to Uruguay to serve as impediments to our bilateral relationship. 
They suggested that the USG should recognize such events and GoA 
populist statements for what they believe they really are - 
relatively unimportant and inconsequential events that are much more 
show than substance.  Mr. Rocca said that he felt that these kinds 
of events could be averted through dialogue and was optimistic that 
his assets in Venezuela would not suffer the same fate as AES and 
Verizon. (Note:  Rocca is a 50% stakeholder in a Venezuelan steel 
company that Hugo Chavez threatened to nationalize this week. End 
Note.) 
 
WAYNE