Industrial output dropped 1.2% in 2012 compared to the volume registered in 2011, Indec national statistics bureau reported on Thursday. The Industrial Monthly Estimator (EMI) stated that industrial production dropped 3.4% in December when compared to the same month of 2011
Monsanto the world’s biggest seed company agreed to waive two years of royalties on its Roundup Ready soybean seeds for Brazilian farmers who agree to forgo claims in a patent dispute.
The government of President Cristina Fernandez implemented a new system whereby mayors will be able to directly apply for financial assistance for their districts, thus bypassing governors. Earlier in the week the most outstanding governor and (political ally) Daniel Scioli from Buenos Aires province had formally requested reconsideration of the tax sharing program.
Argentine Defence Minister Arturo Puricelli said that the sinking of the destroyer ARA Santísima Trinidad could have been a planned sabotage attack, but also confessed that when President Cristina Fernandez asks him why the ship sank his face drops with embarrassment.
A British Member of Parliament called for greater military support for France in Mali as a way of committing Paris in the event of an Argentine ‘invasion’ of the Falklands. However the British government downplayed any military attempt from Argentina and reiterated that no ground troops will put foot in the African country.
Brazil’s powerful manufacturers’ lobby openly criticized the “illegal barriers” imposed by the government of President Cristina Fernandez on Brazilian produce, and also lashed at President Dilma Rousseff for her administration’s “permissive attitude” towards Buenos Aires, a position that has “paralyzed Mercosur”.
Argentine president Cristina Fernández tour of Southeast Asia came to an end on Monday with an embarrassing admission by the leader that she had “put her foot in it” in a press conference in Hanoi by making a statement which was factually incorrect regarding when Argentina recognized Vietnam as a state.
One of the leading New Zealand newspapers, The Dominion Post, has addressed the issue of the Falklands, the dispute with Argentina and the coming March referendum in an editorial “Islanders should decide their destiny”, which we kindly reproduce.
The British designed Argentine missile destroyer ARA “Santísima Trinidad,” that participated in the Falklands conflict in 1982 and has been out of service since 2004 moored at the Puerto Belgrano Navy base, is currently leaning to port and under the risk of sinking.
A temporary port for the oil industry to the east of the Falkland Islands capital is under consideration, but will be removed once a deep water modern permanent sea terminal is constructed in Port William, according to local officials.