STRENGTHENING LONG-TERM
ECONOMIC RELATIONS
By Juan Miguel Massot*
Introduction
The economic dimension, specifically commercial,
allows an approach to the link between India and Argentina
from diff erent angles, even though the material aspect of
the exchange of goods and services predominates, at least
primarily.
This article begins with the analysis of a fi rst aspect that
is crucial in the link attaining bilateral trade and, especially,
in the development of the opportunities for Argentina in
this relationship. Following this, other relevant topics in
the construction of a long-term growing link between both
countries and that fuel the above mentioned are addressed.
Finally, some remarks on how to moving ahead are done.
India-Argentina trade relation from a historical and
structural perspective
From an Argentine perspective, in terms of the exchange
of goods and services, that country has traditionally had a
pattern of linkage associated with the export of commodities.
This is due to the static comparative advantages that arise
from its relative abundance of productive factors (soil,
water, climate, capital, and human capital). This has led to
a pattern of inter-industry trade in which the country has
had positive export balances in primary agricultural goods
and manufactures of agricultural origin, while negative in
industrial manufactures (Berlinski, 2000, Gerchunoff and
Llach, 2004) 1 .
As pointed out by Gerchunoff and Llach (1999), the
rise to dominant economic power of the United States
after the Second World War supposed signifi cant negative
consequences for this pattern of international economic
relations, as well as undesired eff ects on internal economic,
political and social balance (Massot, Rubini and Viñas, 2015,
Massot et al., 2015: 33-60).
These changes, which aff ected not only Argentina but
also almost all the countries of Latin America, promoted the
beginning and development of a school of economic thought
in the region known as Latin American structuralism, and
which is associated with the Economic Commission for
Latin America (ECLAC) and its researchers, among who its
founder, Argentine economist Raúl Prebisch (Iglesias, 1992;
Thomas, 1994; Bielschowsky, 2010).
Regarding international economic relations, this approach
proposed, among other issues, the concept “center-periphery”
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