Last Monday, May 15th, the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies, Research and Foresight (CIDEIPP) of the School of Government of the Universidad Austral organized the first in a series of Legislative Dialogues on current affairs, focusing on the opportunity, merit and advisability of Argentina's access to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The opening of the meeting was led by the Director of the School of Government, Dr. alfonso santiago; from the former OECD Undersecretary of the Nation, Marcelo Scaglione; and the former Secretary of International Economic Relations of the Nation, Horacio Reyser.

National deputies also participated as panelists. Juan Manuel López (Civic Coalition), Margarita Stolbizer (Federal Meeting) and Graciela Camaño (Buenos Aires Identity); and the national senators Gladys González (PRO) and Lucila crexell (Federal Change), and the former deputies Patricia Giménez (UCR) and Roy Cortina (Socialism).

The importance of the meeting lay both in the substantive issue and in the fact that on January 25, 2022, the Secretary-General of the OECD, Mathias Cormann, sent a note to the President of the Argentine Nation, Alberto Fernández, informing him that on that same day the Council of the organization, made up of representatives of its 38 member countries, decided to open accession talks with Argentina, requesting that it begin with the preparation of a draft “roadmap”.

Although Argentina first joined one of the OECD technical committees in 1982 (the Committee on Variety Certification of Seeds, created in 1958), between December 2015 and December 2019, becoming a full member was a central government objective, which was not achieved for geopolitical reasons, since at that time the decision to reopen and expand the process of incorporating new partner countries was not yet ready.

In his note, the Secretary-General mentions the need for Argentina to adhere to the OECD's 60th Anniversary New Vision Declaration and the 2021 Ministerial Council Declaration, documents that reflect the OECD's "shared values, vision and priorities," summarized in the following points:

• the centrality of its fundamental values ​​such as the preservation of individual freedom, the values ​​of democracy, the rule of law, and the defense of human rights;
• the importance of affinity in the relations between candidate countries for accession, with the Organization and with its members;
• the shared effort to support sustainable economic growth, eradicate poverty and leave no one behind, in line with the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals; protect our environment and improve the lives and prospects of all, inside and outside the OECD, as described in the OECD Convention;
• the value of open, commercial, competitive, sustainable and transparent market economies;
• the need for economy-wide public policies aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement and, in particular, with the goal of achieving net-zero global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 through deep emissions reductions enabled by public and private investments;
• the importance of each country adopting and implementing public policies in line with its climate objectives, including reversing and halting biodiversity loss and deforestation as agreed during COP26 in Glasgow; and taking effective action to translate this on the ground;
• the importance of working together to advance an inclusive digital economy;
• the importance of strengthening the rules-based multilateral trading system with the WTO at its center, opposition to economic coercion, leveling the international playing field through increased competition, better integration of emerging market economies into global value chains, and dismantling unnecessary barriers to international trade and cooperation, as a means of benefiting consumers and promoting economic growth and innovation; and
• the importance of investing in quality infrastructure in a transparent, responsible and inclusive manner.

Cormann added: “Your commitment to the points mentioned above, as well as your willingness to comply with other requirements of the accession process and participate in it in a similar manner, will be fundamental to the next steps in the accession process.”

Of the six countries invited to the OECD at the beginning of last year (Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania from Europe; and Argentina, Brazil and Peru from Latin America and the Caribbean), only our country currently lacks a “Roadmap”.

The day also included two keynote lectures by Federico Pinedo (former pro-tempore president of the Senate) and Fernando Straface (Secretary-General and International Relations of CABA) and with the interventions of Jonathan Prendas (former assembly member and president of the OECD Commission of the National Assembly of Costa Rica) and Manuel Gerardo Flores Romero (Coordinator of the Regulatory Policy Programme for Latin America at the OECD).

The moderation was handled by Juan de Dios Cincunegui (Deputy Director of CIDEIPP) and Juan Carranza (former Undersecretary to the OECD of the Nation).

The meeting was attended by Argentine and foreign ambassadors and diplomats, professors, academics and experts in foreign policy, parliamentary diplomacy and international relations, including Karl Dhaene (Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium), Christine Hayes and Christopher Markey (Ambassador and First Secretary of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Heidi Nurmela (First Secretary of the Embassy of Finland), and Argentine ambassadors and diplomats Carlos Sersale di Cerisano, Marcelo Cima, José Ureta, Martín García Moritán, Alejandra Pecoraro, Ernesto A. Gaspari, Luis Castillo, Hernán Santibáñez Vieyra, José Otegui, among others; and academics such as Alfredo Vítolo, Juan Pablo Laporte, Susana Nudelsman, among others.

Relive the day HERE