MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina tries to collect toll from Paraguay for Parana waterway traffic

“This attitude of the Argentine authorities of not recognizing and ignoring international agreements and pacts is very striking,” Dos Santos explained

As of Monday last week, Argentina's General Administration of Ports (AGP) started issuing invoices for “navigation settlements of the previous months.” In other words, a fee began to be collected for the passage of Paraguayan cargo through the Santa Fe-Confluencia section.

Argentina established a tax of US$ 1.47 per ton of net registration for international vessels circulating on the waterway, in the Santa Fe-Confluencia section. The fee has been applied since January and Argentina now intends to collect.

“Not all the companies have already received the invoices. From the date of presentation of the invoice, there is a term of ten days to reject or protest the invoices. The recommendation is not to pay the invoices and to reject them with the legal arguments that are already on the table until the situation is resolved at the regional level”, said Esteban Dos Santos, president of the Center of River and Maritime Shipowners of Paraguay.

He insisted he found Argentina's attitude “surprising” after a meeting on March 10 between Presidents Mario Abdo Benítez and Alberto Fernández. “This attitude of the Argentine authorities of not recognizing and ignoring international agreements and pacts is very striking,” Dos Santos explained.

He also recalled that last week there was a meeting at the Paraguayan Foreign Ministry where they had been briefed about the outcome of the gathering between both heads of state. “Our president expressed the Paraguayan position, and the Argentine president asked Paraguay to make a proposal for a solution to this issue. In that sense, the proposal from the Paraguayan presidency was going to be that Argentina should cancel the measure,” he explained.

Dos Santos stressed that Paraguay continued to honor the Paraguay-Parana waterway agreement. He also pointed out that Uruguay and Bolivia too rejected Argentina's charging toll.

“Now the entire bloc of member countries of the Paraguay-Parana waterway agreement are questioning Argentina the toll, and are requesting, as had been agreed at the January meeting, that Argentina submit a technical report justifying the implementation of the toll rate,” stated Dos Santos, who added that a technical roundtable will be convened in April before the meetings of the Regional Commission of the Paraguay-Paraná waterway agreement.

President Abdo's surprise trip to Argentina to present Paraguay's position regarding Argentina's decision was of no use, although President Fernández expressed his country's willingness to continue evaluating the issue within the institutional framework of the Paraguay-Parana Waterway agreement.

The Argentine toll means US$ 55 million in additional costs to Paraguay's foreign trade.

(Source: Última Hora)