MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguay will not attend Mercosur summit if Argentina doesn’t lift fluvial blockade

Foreign Affairs minister Hector Lacognata makes the announcement

Landlocked Paraguay has called on Argentina to put an end to the blockade of Paraguayan maritime agencies which has virtually cut the country’s foreign trade. Paraguayan Foreign Affairs minister Hector Lacognata also revealed that if the month-long issue is not solved in the next few days, “Paraguay will be absent from the coming Mercosur summit December 15”.

The decision was announced after discussions with President Fernando Lugo and with the purpose of putting pressure on the Argentine government to impede the Buenos Aires maritime unions from blockading the Paraguayan fluvial fleet.

“If this week the conflict is not over with a favourable definition for Paraguayan interests, Paraguay will decide this weekend the convenience or not of attending the Mercosur presidential summit in Foz de Iguazú”, said Lacognata.

The Paraguayan minister made the announcement following a meeting with Argentine ambassador Rafael Romá who was called to address the Paraguay River crisis that has been going on for over a month.

“There are no appropriate conditions to continue signing agreements, if Article one of the Mercosur Treaty, the free circulation of goods, is not effectively executed”, said Lacognata in direct reference to the coming summit which is also Brazilian president Lula da Silva farewell. At the meeting Brazil is scheduled to hand the Mercosur rotating chair, for the next six months to Paraguay.

With the absence of Paraguay, any agreements to be signed will not be confirmed by the government and therefore “will not become effective”.

The impediments from Argentine unions and maritime organizations are “affecting the integration process” warned Lacognata who described the attitude of Argentine maritime trade unions as “extremely serious”.

“We consider that the Argentine government is obliged to guarantee the free circulation of our goods. It simply can’t leave the situation to the whim of the private sector”, he emphasized.

Apparently the Argentine maritime unions are impeding all traffic of Paraguayan vessels alleging ill-treatment and poor working conditions for members of a similar union in Paraguay.

However Paraguayan maritime unions argue they have no major problems with the local agencies and that the alleged branch was a recent creation of the Argentine union which is intent in managing the whole fluvial trade of Paraguay.

Paraguayan sources claim the unions are acting in collusion with Argentine maritime agencies that want the monopoly of all shipping along the river Parana and the Paraguay which are the main trade access (80%) for Paraguay with the rest of the world.

“Not even the times of the colony or during the Triple Alliance war (Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay against Paraguay) did the country face such a situation” complained Guillermo Ehreke, president of the Paraguayan fluvial and maritime vessels owners centre.

Apparently the issue was addressed by Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo with his Argentine peer Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Foreign Affairs minister Hector Timmerman, during the recent Mar del Plan Ibero-American summit.