What are the myths that exist in terms of trade exchanges and interaction between India and Argentina and how do you wish to address them during your visit?

Perhaps one of the most frequent questions that face an officer in my position is the one that deals with, what I call, a kind of a simplification of relations between our countries. This impression of disparity comes from an exaggeration of obstacles created by the geographic distance, mutual lack of knowledge, cultural differences and idiosyncrasies, or even those of social and historical order which relate to distinct origins of our respective societies. In the planning of commercial relations, this myth leads to thinking on many occasions that countries confine themselves to pass through absolutely traditional channels, and therefore be limited to raw products, or to commercial flow of sporadic trade exchanges.

On the contrary, I think that Argentina and India are two big countries, as much from the point of view of their geographic expanse and natural wealth, as from their socio-economic structure, that include complex and sophisticated industries, that result in a capability of relating to and complementing extremely, without any type of limitations, in a world as globalised as that of today. In that sense, the Argentine Commercial Delegation that visits India in October 2009, headed by the President Mrs. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, is a clear manifestation of our trust in the gradual and inexorable enrichment and prosperity of our commercial-economic relations. To end the response to your question, I will say that from the area that I have been given to manage in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, we are ready to put all the effort that may be necessary to help in concretizing more each day this broader relationship, which is not only possible, but also inevitable in the future.

You have been the Under-Secretary for International Trade since 2005. What have been the challenges you have faced during this tenure?
We have had many challenges, but possibly the greatest challenge of these years has been the structuring and execution of a series of annual programmes of activities and of concrete promotional actions. The first condition is that such activities be of an annual nature to allow us to adapt the plans to the existing budgetary funds for each exercise. The second condition is that they would be of a comprehensive nature, in the sense that they would include in these actions, in the most possible representative way, not only all the sectors of the Argentine economic activity, but also all levels of companies according to their size, putting a special emphasis on the Small and Medium scale industries, which in our country have a spectacular dynamism and a notable multifold impact in the socio-economic structure.

Lastly, and in relation to aforesaid, we have begun, with the purpose of streamlining our resources, a strict prioritizing of these markets according to their importance for us and their own weightage. The result of all these initiatives has been impressive. We began in 2006 with a plan of action that included 320 commercial promotion actions for all in that year, and today in 2009 we are completely in execution of a program that includes more than 1200 concrete promotion actions that cover more destinations, more sectors, more products and more factors in comparison to previous years. Although there is an emphasis on Latin America and the MERCOSUR, it must be noted that this bunch of activities cover practically the entire planet covering the most varied selection of products and sectors of our economic activity.