
While Argentina’s Mercosur trade partners have adopted a cautious attitude regarding the latest measures that make it more cumbersome and bureaucratic to sell to Argentina, the country’s manufacturers and importers have warned of the consequences and called for a more balanced approach to the issue.

Chile ratified this week that vessels flying the Malvinas flag will continue to be barred from Chilean ports and that the country’s position relative to the issue has not changed and denies the existence of a blockade. A brief statement from the Chilean Foreign Affairs ministry indirectly refers to the latest statement by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague.

In an official communiqué Uruguay ratified full support for Argentina’s Malvinas sovereignty claim and underlined that the barring of Malvinas’ flagged vessel from Uruguayan ports stands and “has not changed an iota”.

LAN Airlines announced that “due to a decision by the (Argentine) national aeronautical authorities,” the company has been forced to reschedule flights leaving from the Buenos Aires City Aeroparque Metropolitan airport bound for Sao Paulo and Santiago de Chile.

As the UK applies pressure on Mercosur countries so they allow the entry to vessels flying the Malvinas flag, Argentine ruling Victory Front lawmaker Carlos Kunkel said on Wednesday that Argentina “must be politically persistent while maintaining a constant defence” on its claims over the sovereignty of the islands.

Argentine President Cristina Fernández is recovering much faster than anticipated from her thyroid surgery and on Wednesday actively discussed a range of government issues with Vice-President Amado Boudou and Cabinet Chief Juan Manuel Abal Medina, amongst others.

The fleet of vertical take-off Harrier aircraft, a crucial weapon in the 1982 Falkland Islands conflict has been sold to support the US Marine Corps in a deal worth £110m, reports the British press.

Argentina will impose new restrictions on consumer goods’ imports, according to a resolution from the Revenue Office published this week in the Official Gazette and effective next February first.

An Argentine farmers’ leader said that Agriculture Minister Norberto Yauhar who tried to downplay the seriousness of the current drought for crops, “is not qualified for the job, plus knows very little about droughts”.

Argentina in two brief statements said on Tuesday that there has been no change in Mercosur members’ position to bar Falklands’ flagged vessels from the region’s ports and that the United Kingdom admits that such policy has become effective.