The international trade position of Argentina. Towards a process of export diversification?

This study analyses how far the strong expansion of Argentine exports since
2003 has been due simply to favourable external conditions and how industrial
manufactures have behaved. It finds that the country's pattern of international
specialization has not greatly altered at the major category level, but that both
primary products and manufactures of agricultural origin, which account for much of
the trade surplus, have undergone significant changes in composition. In addition,
regional trade has consolidated and traditional partners such as the European Union
and the United States have been displaced to some extent by China. Industrial
manufactures have continued to suffer from a strong comparative disadvantage,
but certain high-technology industrial sectors, such as agricultural machinery and
pumps and compressors, have started to become competitive, while seamless oil
and gas tubing is already highly competitive.