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Business / Trade in Uruguay

  • Argentina reacted strongly and with a letter in harsh terms to Uruguay's decision

    ARGENTINA, 2014/06/15 Argentina reacted strongly and with a letter in harsh terms to Uruguay's decision to authorize Finland's UPM-Kymmene pulp mill to increase annual production by 8%. The letter addressed by Foreign minister Hector Timerman to his peer Luis Almagro informs Argentina will take the case to international tribunals and is currently 'reassessing' bilateral relations. Timerman said he became aware of the decision that allows UPM to increase production to 1.365 million tons per annum with the release presented by the Uruguayan delegation to the River Uruguay Administrative Commission. The UPM pulp mill has been built on the shared, and jointly managed, river that acts as a natural border between Uruguay and Argentina.
  • Uruguay/Argentina bilateral dialogue

    ARGENTINA, 2013/12/26 The last time Mujica and Cristina Fernandez met was on 30 September, in Buenos Aires during the baptism of the new ferry incorporated to the Montevideo/Buenos Aires link which was named “Francis Pope” At the 17 January summit, Venezuela will be handing the chair to Paraguay, recently fully incorporated to Mercosur, breaking the alphabetical protocol order, but consolidating the cohesion of the group which was strained over the Venezuela incorporation controversy, and Paraguay's 15-month suspension. Uruguayan president Jose Mujica and his peer from Argentina Cristina Fernandez will be conference next 17 January on the sidelines of the Mercosur summit scheduled to take place in Caracas, Venezuela. This would be the initial time the two leaders meet next over seventy days of interrupted bilateral dialogue, and they have a long inventory of issues to address if they finally decide to discuss them.
  • Mujica questions Argentine trade policies towards Mercosur that “take us back to the sixties”

    ARGENTINA, 2013/12/01 “Argentina has a development model, but from the sixties. They have a right to have a model but this one does not solve problems it makes them worse”, said Mujica in an interview with Zero Hora, the majority influential newspaper from the south of Brazil. “I could understand this policy if it involved the whole of Mercosur, but closing in to Mercosur members it looks as if Mercosur does not make sense any longer”, pointed out the Uruguayan leader in reference to all the obstacles imposed by Argentina to bilateral trade, inclunding ports. Uruguayan president Jose Mujica again questioned Argentine president Cristina Fernandez government trade policies which he said take us back 'to the sixties, at the same time as everybody locked in', and in result deny Mercosur and harm other members.
  • Mujica holds cabinet meeting and flies off to Brazil and Venezuela

    CHILE, 2013/11/11 The schedule with the Brazilian president includes Mercosur and the coming round with the European Union for a free trade and cooperation agreement; bilateral trade; integration issues; wind farms; Uruguay's planned deep sea port close to Brazil; the withdrawal of the peace contingent in Haiti, and most probably officially denied but significant Argentina's new measures harming Uruguay's exports and ports' activities. Uruguayan president Jose Mujica decided to advance Monday's ministerial cabinet for Saturday so that he can fly to Brazil and Venezuela where he is scheduled to meet with Dilma Roussefdf and later Nicolas Maduro. Mujica on Friday al last moment cancelled his trip to Brasilia but will be conference Rousseff in the southern city of Porto Alegre. Regarding Venezuela, there is growing concern over the delay in payments for Uruguayan exports, and this is crucial for Mujica since Venezuela is in the short inventory of best clients for dairy produce, grains, beef, chicken and chemical products.
  • Uruguay's foreign minister Luis Almagro

    BRAZIL, 2013/10/25 The issue was analyzed on Monday by President Jose Mujica with the Brazilian Foreign minister Luiz Alberto Figuereido during a conference at the Executive Tower in Montevideo which as well included Uruguay's foreign minister Luis Almagro Figuereido in his initial trip to Montevideo as minister revealed that Argentina is working on its proposition and a joint Mercosur position will be presented next December in Brussels, adding there was still time to discuss the four proposals trying to reach a consensus in a draft document for all the region. “It is not anticipated that Brazil and Uruguay make an independent proposition to Europe, it's going to be a whole Mercosur affair”, insisted Figuereido.
  • Uruguay’s José Mujica lauds booming Brazil ties

    URUGUAY, 2013/05/17 Next spending half of his mandate in cultivating good relations with Argentina Mujica presently feels it is time to look to Brazil tuning on “a complementary integration” since that country ‘knows what it wants and is going for it”. Follows the full piece: It is clear where José Mujica’s priorities lie. And they are not across the River Plate. Next a spot of morning work on his tractor, the maverick Uruguayan president dismisses Argentina as “very, very, very closed in on itself, very 1960s-ish”. The former leftist guerrilla again lauds his northern neighbor, Brazil, for “knowing what it wants and going for it”.
  • Uruguay admits trade and economic relations with Argentina ‘couldn’t be worse’

    ARGENTINA, 2013/05/04 “Argentina protectionist policies are flagrantly contradicting the Treaty of Asuncion, (the founding stone of Mercosur), and even at the same time as the Argentine government has amount the right to decide its policies, those decisions have no support in the Mercosur treaty”, pointed out Astori during a business forum.
  • Foreign minister Luis Almagro

    CANADA, 2013/02/08 Almagro made the announcement during the signing of a tax data exchange agreement with Uruguay with the purpose of attracting investments and facilitates the influx and outflow of capital. At the ceremony in the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry, Minister Almagro and Canadian ambassador Claire Poulin underlined the significance of the accord and the fact the two nations have long shared values, principles and besides are “the two nations with ‘the lowest levels of corruption in the continent’.
  • Uruguay’s main export items

    URUGUAY, 2013/01/05 The Institute points out that if exports from free trade zones are as well included, “the total volume for 2012 jumps to 9.83bn dollars”, which means the free trade zones represent 11% of Uruguay’s total exports. However the statement as well points out that the export of goods during December dropped 5.9% compared to the same month in 2011. The December eroding tendency is a repeat of previous months: November (down 4%), September (6%) and April (1%) compared to the same periods of 2011.