MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

SeaCargo convention in Miami looks at Uruguay as Mercosur gateway

Renato Ferreira, president of the Lobraus Free Port.

Uruguay as the natural gateway to Mercosur, --South America’s main trading block-- will be the top issue to be discussed at the SeaCargo Americas AirCargo Americas Conference special seminar to he held November 5th in Miami with the participation of hemispheric port, airport and logistics leaders.

The seminar at the Doubletree Miami Mart and Convention Center will cover the advantages of Uruguayan free port laws and the free zones, the logistical advantages of trading through Uruguay with Mercosur and the cost benefits of Uruguay’s low tariffs and service fees.

A group of private companies will join a team of government officials from Uruguay at the Miami seminar detailing the advantages to regional traders of selecting Uruguay which operates under a system common to the US Free Trade Zone facilities, highly unusual among South American port terminals and warehouses.

US trading partners seeking business with Mercosur members without the complexity of trading through Brazilian, Argentine or Venezuelan ports will then have the opportunity of a new, modern and efficient alternative through Uruguay.

Mercosur, the Common Market of the South, is made up of the four founding countries from 1991: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Since 2008, Venezuela, Chile and Bolivia are associate members. Besides, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia have expressed their desire to join the group but are to a certain extent limited by their own Andean Nations Community. Mexico has also expressed an interest.

Paraguay is landlocked and Brazilian and Venezuelan airports and seaports are enmeshed in political and customs intrigue while Uruguay is striving to demonstrate the efficiency of its new Free Zone laws, according to Renato Ferreira, president of the Lobraus Free Port.

Founded in 1989 in California, Lobraus is now a dominant force at the Port of Montevideo where it operates under the Free Port Law System and bonded warehouses with all the facilities and services common to US Free Trade Zone facilities.

Also on hand will be executives of Uruguay’s Zonamerica private free zone, business and technology park and executives from TCU S.A. the operator of Uruguay’s main airport cargo terminal.

Uruguayan officials from the government and private sector delegations will be available including Crlos Gianelli, Uruguay’s Ambassador to the United States; Jorge Camaño, president of CONALOG; Fernando Puntigliano, former president of ANP, the national ports administration of Uruguay. Also on hand at the national booths and the seminar will be Renato Ferreira from Lobraus Free Port, economist Isidoro Hodara who is vice president of Zonamerica and engineer Bruno Guellao, Commercial Manager of “Terminal de Cargas Uruguay”, the unique Cargo Terminal under a Free Port regime located inside a South American Airport.

More information about SeaCargo Americas Seminar: Ana Laura Bremen (598-2-924-6064) or email: anabremen@lobraus.net