El Presidente Ferrari.

• Position: Carlos Menem, Argentina - TT: The Ferrari President. - TA: Carlos Menem, Argentina - Entrevista

At the decade mark Argentina's Carlos Menem is still going strong.

Will the peso devalue?

No. One candidate mentioned this. I've said that it would be suicide.

How serious is your proposal to make the dollar Argentina's official currency?

If the dollar were the common currency in the region, we wouldn't have seen the devaluation in Brazil or Mexico, with all its consequences.

Seventy percent of the world economy is negotiated in dollars, the same is more or less true within Argentina.

We continue to negotiate with the U.S. authorities to realize this dream. But if not the dollar--that will take more time--then we need a common regional currency.

Don't many people see using the dollar as an attack on sovereignty?

Sovereignty is not what people here used to believe: administering the railroads, gas, electricity or telephones. That was an illusory sovereignty. The only oil company in the world that made a loss was YPF under state control. Our telephones didn't work. In summer, there was no power for light, or air-conditioning or refrigerators. In winter, there was no gas. That was Argentine sovereignty.

What is the future of Mercosur?

Brilliant. Many of the problems that have arisen as a result of the current crisis are being resolved by the private sector: the dairy producers, the automotive industry, textiles and footwear producers.

And now the presidents are in permanent contact. Before two presidents would meet in impressive ceremonies. Now we talk by phone and we sort out the problems.

Does Brazil act unilaterally in trade matters?

No, we take each other into account when we are going to take action.

Yet when Brazil devalued, Argentina was as shocked as the rest of the world.

There wasn't much warning. They announced the devaluation at the last moment and we helped Brazil so that the results were not too dramatic.

What about the idea that unfinished business--especially labor reform--is the real root of Argentina's current...