Maximiliano Pullaro used a foreign-trade forum to draw a political distinction from the national scene. Opening “Santa Fe in the World” at La Fluvial in Rosario, the governor said public policy can be built through government-private sector coordination instead of shouting and hostility. Universities, production institutions and officials also attended to discuss the Mercosur-European Union agreement and trade opportunities in North America and Asia.
The comparison was not limited to the tone of debate. Pullaro presented the Economic and Social Council, which organized the event, as a structure capable of sustaining agreements beyond changes in government. He recalled that the body was created by law in 2016 and said it had become established state policy. He placed the governing method Santa Fe seeks to display within that institutional continuity, contrasting it with the confrontation he attributes to national politics.
The provincial agenda is based on maintaining existing markets and opening destinations for production. Pullaro mentioned participation in international forums, support for exporting small and medium-sized companies and long-term planning. His argument is that internationalization does not depend on a single trade mission, but on a stable relationship among authorities, companies, universities and organizations capable of identifying opportunities and preparing productive capacity.
Infrastructure appears as a condition of that strategy. The governor said Santa Fe reduced the cost of government, lowered taxes and, with the same resources, invested during the past 30 months an amount equivalent to what had been spent in the previous eight years. He listed roads, energy, gas pipelines, ports and airports as investments intended to reduce costs and improve provincial companies' competitiveness. The private sector was invited to plan, while government accompanies and supports.
Production Development Minister Gustavo Puccini reinforced the case with the province's export profile. He said Santa Fe had become the country's leading exporting province and that in 2025 its ports surpassed New Orleans and Santos in cargo movement. For the minister, those indicators express both the current weight of Santa Fe's economy and the potential of its logistics and port system.
Puccini also set a condition for the trade opening promoted by the national government. He described it as an opportunity rather than a threat, provided it is accompanied by policies that strengthen SMEs and consolidate value chains. That qualification avoids presenting opening as an automatic result: gaining markets requires companies able to compete and infrastructure capable of supporting their access abroad.
Council executive secretary Jorge Dolce added the new framework of the Mercosur-EU agreement, whose provisional application he described as access to a market of about 700 million consumers. The forum complements instruments such as the Santa Fe Business Forum and leaves a political and productive next step: turn the coordination defended by Pullaro into new commercial ties without abandoning support for the companies expected to use them.
