TORONTO, January 15, 2002 -- Recently returned from a struggling Argentina where banking controls are drawing angry criticism from citizens, York University Professor Viviana Patroni says the political and economic crisis there is a wake-up call for all Latin American countries suffering the effects of deregulated economies and liberalized trade. Patroni will present an analysis of the unfolding situation on Thursday, Jan. 17 at 2 p.m. entitled, Argentina: a Crisis Foretold.
"Brazil will be a key partner in Argentina’s struggle to revive itself as both countries question the value of a proposed Free-Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)," said Patroni, director of York’s Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) and a specialist in the Argentinian labour movement. She notes that Brazil will need a stable Argentina as an ally in hemispheric trade negotiations.
Argentina’s new Peronist party president Eduardo Duhalde is walking a political tightrope with banking controls that have limited withdrawals on some types of accounts and relaxed limits on others, trying to keep public anger at bay while preventing a run on the peso. Last week he announced the end of the peso peg to the U.S. dollar, allowing a devaluation of the peso and the conversion of up to $100,000 (U.S.) of all dollar-denominated household debts to pesos at the old one-to-one rate, a move that has cost the banks billions of dollars. Duhalde has said he will have a budget and a long-term economic plan to present to the Argentinian Congress this weekend, and then to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to obtain emergency funding. The IMF’s refusal to extend a $1.3-billion (U.S.) loan last month triggered the crisis after four years of recession.
Patroni says a new economic plan will have to address issues of unemployment and poverty and the need for income redistribution. "A positive development in this crisis is that the people of Argentina are standing up for their rights and questioning the values of liberalized trade and financial deregulation, and the government is responding. Duhalde is aware that people may very well take to the streets again."
Patroni will speak in the Douglas Verney Room, S674 Ross building, York University, Keele Campus, 4700 Keele St.
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