
Argentine Industry Ministry officials assured Wednesday that non-automatic licenses currently being applied to imports “in no way represent an obstacle for our Mercosur partners” and they have been implemented to monitor imports from outside the region.

India’s manufacturer of International Tractors (Sonalika brand) is in advanced negotiations with Argentina-based company Apache for the establishment of a 25 million US dollars assembly plant in the South American country as part of a regional campaign.

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Argentina's appeal in its long-running legal effort to unfreeze some assets held in trust since 2007, following on its roughly 100 billion US dollars debt default five years earlier.

Argentina's unemployment rate fell to 7.3% in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to a Tuesday release from the country’s national statistics institute, Indec. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner had announced the number informally in a speech last week.

Repsol-YPF plans to start deepwater exploration off the coast of Tierra del Fuego in the Malvinas basin are expected to begin before the end of the first half of 2011, according to company’s sources.

Argentina's Pan American Energy will sign a deal later this month to buy Exxon Mobil local downstream unit Esso, turning the company into a fully integrated oil and gas producer. Pan American Energy is a unit of Bridas Corp., which is jointly owned by Argentina's Bulgheroni family through Bridas Energy Holdings and China's Cnooc Ltd.

Even when Uruguay and Brazil are in the course of reaching understandings with Argentina regarding the latest trade restrictions to be implemented by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner administration, ‘which are not targeted against Mercosur members’, the Brazilian press presents another angle.

Uruguay and Argentina are discussing a ‘fast track’ mechanism that will allow Uruguayan exports to have quick access to the neighbour’s market thus avoiding the controversial trade restrictions recently announced by the administration of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and which have surprised Mercosur partners.

Repsol-YPF planned exploration for hydrocarbons in the Malvinas basin, off Tierra del Fuego has suffered a major public relations setback following on the Buenos Aires press revelation that the two vessels contracted for the job not only are UK flagged but also have links with the current oil exploration round in Falkland Islands’ waters.

Argentina is satisfied with the outcome of the G-20 ministerial meeting after the proposal to regulate commodities prices was turned down, particularly in the food chapter, and because it was agreed that the best way to address current tensions is to stimulate supply.