MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina/Uruguay pulp mills dispute expected to cool

The pulp mills conflict between Argentina and Uruguay will be aired in international courts announced Wednesday Entre Rios province governor Jorge Busti. But the whole bi-national dispute seems to be cooling off following the indirect involvement of Brazil and Chile.

Entre Rios officials, residents and environmental activists are protesting the building of two pull mills in neighbouring Uruguay, just across the river Uruguay that acts as a natural frontier between the two countries.

Protestors argue that the chlorine based process to make pulp out of wood will contaminate water and air with dangerous dioxins. Uruguay, together with the two companies involved, from Finland and Spain insist the plants will be state of the art and the technology to be applied is up to the latest European Union standards.

The activists are demanding the works cease until a bilateral environmental understanding can be reached, and have for weeks been blocking access to the several bridges across the river Uruguay interrupting traffic, trade and the massive summer tourist influx of Argentines travelling to Uruguayan beaches.

Mr. Busti said he had the commitment of the federal government to begin a demand against Uruguay before The Hague International Court for violation of the statute of the shared Uruguay river.

"President Kirchner decided that the federal government will do what the province of Entre Rios requests", added Mr. Busti who described the situation as a "major institutional issue".

Mr. Busti made the announcement Wednesday evening in Entre Rios after returning from Buenos Aires where in the morning he interviewed President Kirchner.

However Mr Busti also requested the people of Entre Ríos "to think that once the demand has been presented, these international organizations never function under pressure, so this means we will have to find other ways of expressing ourselves".

The message to the picketers Mr. Busti promoted was that "we're going to address the (grass roots) Assembly because we don't want to trigger the opposite effect. We will have to protest through other methods".

In Buenos Aires Mr. Busti and deputy governor Pedro Guastavino met with Cabinet chief Alberto Fernández and Foreign Affairs minister Jorge Taiana, with President Kirchner apparently joining when the meeting had been going on for over an hour.

Mr Busti's announcement also seemed to brush aside remarks earlier in the week when the governor said he was prepared to resign as governor if President Kirchner asked him to move aside.

The controversial blockading of the bridges has divided Argentine public opinion with business organizations and several governors criticizing Mr. Busti for promoting the pickets and turmoil.

Last week, when Mr. Kirchner made an official state visit, Brazil admitted that the leading Mercosur members, (Brazil and Argentina) hadn't done enough to understand and support the smaller members, Paraguay and Uruguay. The comment followed remarks by Uruguayan Finance minister Danilo Astori saying that Uruguay must reach a free trade agreement with United States which has become the country's main trade partner.

Brazil that has a leading role in the G 20 group of the World Trade Organization round is fearful that a "grumpy" Uruguay might be forced to open a window to the United States. Besides the pulp mills project is partly financed by the World Bank.

Chile has also been forced into the dispute since several trucks with equipment and materials for the pulp mills were retained on the Argentine side of the bridge impeded from crossing and delivering their cargos in Uruguay.

Chile so far made no formal protest but on Tuesday a truckers association managed to convince an Argentine federal court to order the Gendarmerie to clear the access to the bridges.