Argentina has faced numerous trade-related problems this year including allegations that Brazil, its No. 1 trade partner, was unfairly ``dumping'' goods such as steel and poultry in Argentina. The accusation has tested the Mercosur trade bloc, the world's third largest of which Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay are members.

Dumping refers to one country selling goods in another at below production costs.

De la Rua said he also plans to send his ``emergency law'' to congress the coming week and launch a vigorous programme to promote sales abroad from Argentina's embattled exporters. Many of the country's companies were lashed last year after Brazil sharply devalued its currency in January 1999, cutting into their products' competitive edge.

The ``emergency law'' is a sweeping package of reforms engineered to streamline the the Argentine economy and boost its competitiveness. The bill would liberalise labour laws and aims to promote productivity in small and medium-sized businesses as well as cut rampant tax evasion.

De la Rua, whose centrist Alliance government took office on December 10, scored two legislative victories last week by passing a budget for 2000 and a tax-hike plan to cut the budget deficit in a drive to balance the recession-struck country's books. Argentina's gross domestic product was estimated to have contracted about 3.0 in 1999.