China-Argentina Trade Relations Blueprint

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Afghanistan, bilateral trade volume has continued to grow and economic and trade cooperation has deepened. According to Chinese customs statistics, the bilateral trade volume in 2023 will be US$17.399 billion, of which China's exports will be US$10.743 billion and imports will be US$6.656 billion, down 17.9%, 15.4% and 21.7% respectively year-on-year. Currently, Afghanistan is my country's sixth largest trading partner in Latin America, and my country is Afghanistan's second largest trading partner in the world. China mainly exports chemical fertilizers and pesticides, electrical and electronic products, high-tech products, textiles and clothing and other commodities, and mainly imports soybeans, meat, crude oil and other commodities. Since April 2023, Afghanistan has announced a series of policies and measures to expand the use of RMB in Afghanistan, including using RMB to settle import trade from China, allowing the opening of RMB accounts and savings businesses, and the use of RMB in Afghanistan has increased significantly.

The two sides have so far held 5 strategic dialogues on economic cooperation and coordination and 20 meetings of the Economic and Trade Mixed Committee. In November 2004, Argentina announced that it would recognize China's market economy status. In April 2009, the People's Bank of China and the Central Bank of Argentina signed a local currency swap agreement of 70 billion yuan/38 billion Argentine pesos. In July 2014, during President Xi Jinping’s visit to Argentina, the People’s Bank of China and the Central Bank of Argentina signed a local currency swap agreement of 70 billion yuan/90 billion Argentine pesos. In July 2017, the People's Bank of China and the Central Bank of Argentina renewed the China-Argentina (Argentina) bilateral local currency swap agreement, with an agreement size of 70 billion yuan/175 billion Argentine pesos. In December 2018, the People's Bank of China and the Central Bank of Argentina signed a supplementary agreement on bilateral local currency swaps of RMB/pesos, expanding the local currency swap limit from RMB 70 billion to RMB 130 billion. In July 2020 and June 2023, the two parties renewed the 130 billion yuan local currency swap agreement twice.