MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguay's new FM faced with further waterway negotiations

Ramírez insisted all the necessary legal means would be used to solve the situation

Paraguay's new Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez met last week with representatives of the Paraguay-Parana Waterway Agreement Committee (CPTCP) to discuss the next steps toward the elimination of the toll of US$ 1.47 per ton of net register to river transport circulating through the “Port of Santa Fe-Confluencia” section unilaterally imposed by Argentina.

“In no way are we going to exhaust dialogue, with the firmness and conviction that we are claiming a fair right of the Republic of Paraguay,” said Ramírez, who insisted all the necessary legal means will be used to solve the situation.

Ramírez also pointed out that the other countries making up the waterway (Brazil, Bolivia, and Uruguay) have agreed to contend the tariff nine months after it was implemented.

The new director of Paraguay's Administration of Navigation and Ports (ANNP), Julio César Vera, who participated in the meeting with Ramírez, pointed out that technical reports support refuting the arguments for charging the toll.

Raúl Valdéz, president of the Center of River Owners of Paraguay, said that the private sector considers the measure as “a tax on the passage of our vessels.”

So far, the invoices issued by the intended toll collection are around US$ 12 million and it is estimated that by the end of the year, they could reach US$ 50 million. In addition, Valdez said that Argentina's General Ports Administration (AGP) does not have an administrative structure to manage the collections. He also said not all shipowners were paying the toll and that those who did might later sue for reimbursement.

A meeting of the Commission of the Paraguay-Parana Waterway Agreement was held in Buenos Aires with representatives of Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil, and Uruguay. Based on the technical documentation submitted by the CPTCP, it was determined that there is no basis for charging a toll on the “Port of Santa Fe-Confluencia” section. Subsequently, the CPTCP issued an official statement opposing such a charge.

“The CPTCP is willing to provide all the necessary technical information so that the present conflict between brother countries may be resolved in a cordial manner, always respecting the guidelines established in the Santa Cruz de la Sierra Agreement, which has turned out to be an efficient legal framework that has allowed river cargoes through its system to go from the precarious 800,000 tons in the [19]80's to more than 20 million tons at present,” the entity remarked.

In this scenario, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, and Uruguay will discuss the toll on the waterway at a special meeting of the Intergovernmental Waterways Committee (CIH) -a political body overseeing the 1992 Waterway Transport Agreement- on Aug. 30 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.

According to Brazil's Foreign Ministry, Argentina failed to prove that the toll corresponds to services actually rendered, leading the countries concerned to insist that the simple act of navigation should not be subject to charges.

The situation worsened after a Paraguayan and a Bolivian tugboat were detained in the port of San Lorenzo, Santa Fe, Argentina, due to accumulated debts for non-payment of tolls.