LABORDA “The investment climate in danger”, (La Nación, AR)

Fernando Laborda, at La Nación, analyses in
this article some of the negative consequences that the expropriation of YPF – and other measures and decisions recently taken by the government – could have for the foreign investment in the country.

Laborda argues that the image Argentina is giving is probably scaring away any potential international investors. Laborda is not completely against the expropriation of YPF but rather is against the way it was done. It could have been possible to recover the Company via negotiations and diplomacy – and following the Constitution–avoiding the confrontation. The president, he argues, is probably unaware of how much harm she has done to the investment climate of the country.  The expropriation of YPF is only one more detail in a series of other event. Laborda mentions some of them, such as the complaint of WTO members against the trade obstacles; the incredibility of official statistics; the obstacles to buy foreign currency in the country; and some others.

Laborda concludes that lobby is not enough to give an incentive to international investment.