YPF, out of international agenda until June

By Carlos Burgueño

Washington (Special Correspondant) The government’s decision of nationalizing YPF will be discussed in June in Los Cabos, Mexico, during the G-20 summit. Until then, there will not be any official statements as a result of several meetings held last night in Washington by Economy Minister Hernán Lorenzino with high-ranking officials.

The minister attended a dinner offered by Mexican President Felipe Calderón where he came across the US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the IMF chief Christine Lagarde, Brazilian Economy Minister Guido Mantega, Mexican José Antonio Meade, el French Francoise Baroin and his Spanish counterpart Luis de Guindos, among others.

During the dinner, he had two certainties. The first one is that YPF nationalization will not be discussed during the IMF-World Bank meetings and will be out of the international agenda until June. The second one is that Spain will be a special guest of the G-20 summit to be held in Los Cabos, Mexico, and nothing will prevent Mariano Rajoy from making a public condemnation of YPF’s expropriation.

According to the minister, "YPF is not in the agenda, will not be debated here. It’s something that will stay within the relations of the Argentine government and the company. " He added “there is a great respect among the region’s countries about each government’s legitimacy.” “We must address topics like growth and social inclusion,” he stated.