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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, August 1st 2026 - 17:37 UTC

Economy

  • Thursday, July 23rd 2026 - 22:33 UTC

    US rebuilds its tariff wall with forced-labor levies on 60 economies

    The levies are applied under Section 301 of the 1974 trade law, which allows a response to unfair trade practices following an investigation

    The United States imposed tariffs of between 10% and 12.5% on 60 trading partners, which together account for about 99% of its imports, over what the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) described as their failure to adopt and effectively enforce bans on the import of goods produced with forced labor. The measures, announced on Thursday, took effect at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, at the same moment the 10% universal tariff in place since February expired.

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  • Wednesday, July 22nd 2026 - 22:13 UTC

    US court upholds $390 million judgment against Argentina over Aerolíneas

    The decisive legal point was the statute of limitations

    The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday rejected an appeal filed by Argentina and left standing the ruling that recognizes an arbitral award of $390,907,115 in favor of the fund Titan Consortium, over the 2008 expropriation of Aerolíneas Argentinas and Austral Líneas Aéreas Cielos del Sur. The amount was calculated as of December 10, 2024, with subsequent interest to be added.

  • Wednesday, July 22nd 2026 - 07:18 UTC

    US readies tariffs on some 60 economies over forced labor, with Argentina among them

    The proposal, put forward by Greer's office in June following an investigation launched in March, contemplates two tiers

    US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said his government will announce new tariffs on some 60 economies in the coming days for failing to enforce bans on the import of goods produced with forced labor. “The US has laws to prohibit trading goods with forced labor. Other countries, most of them, don't have a law, and those that do really don't enforce it,” he said on Tuesday in an interview with CNBC.

  • Tuesday, July 21st 2026 - 01:05 UTC

    Argentina's June trade surplus rises 149% year-on-year on stronger exports

    The June surplus, however, marked a 36.4% drop from May's figure, which had been a record $3.450 billion

    Argentina posted a trade surplus of $2.194 billion in June, a 149.6% increase from the same month in 2025, driven by growth in exports, the National Institute of Statistics and Census (Indec) reported on Monday.

  • Sunday, July 19th 2026 - 17:43 UTC

    Lula asks Trump to explain 25% tariffs on Brazil, speaks of a “war of truth”

    “The war I want to wage with him is a war of narrative, a war of truth. I want to show the world who is telling the truth in this tariff war between Brazil and the United States,” Lula said

    Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva publicly called on his US counterpart, Donald Trump, to explain the reasons behind the 25% tariffs he imposed on most Brazilian products, a measure Brasília attributes to political rather than commercial motives. The levies, announced on July 15 by the Office of the US Trade Representative, will take effect on July 22.

  • Tuesday, July 14th 2026 - 22:26 UTC

    Argentina's inflation slows to 1.9% in June, lowest monthly rate in 10 months

    The government presents the slowdown as one of the main achievements of the fiscal and monetary adjustment program launched after Javier Milei took office in December 2023

    Inflation in Argentina slowed for the third consecutive month in June, coming in at 1.9%, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC). It was the lowest monthly figure since August 2025 and the first time this year that the index dropped below the 2% threshold. Year-on-year, prices rose 33.5%, while the first-half cumulative figure reached 16.8%.

  • Monday, July 13th 2026 - 08:00 UTC

    Argentine buyers slow their push into Uruguay's property market

    Among the reasons operators say keep Uruguay attractive is legal certainty in the rental market

    The flow of Argentine investors into Uruguay's property market, which intensified after the pandemic and during the years of greatest economic uncertainty in Argentina, is showing signs of easing. Sector operators attribute the shift to Argentina's economic recovery and to the narrowing price gap between the two countries.

  • Thursday, July 9th 2026 - 16:23 UTC

    Falklands planning business delegation to Uruguay to buy construction materials, ‘costs the crux of the issue”

    The kind of products needed in the Islands are certainly available in Uruguayan terms of construction materials as well as normal every day goods and provisions

    Talks are continuing over a potential Falkland Islands business delegation to Uruguay later this year. Organized by Falkland Islands Development Corporation and the Chamber of Commerce, the visit would connect Falklands businesses with Uruguayan suppliers. The issue was discussed with Sam Cockwell, Strategic Projects Manager at the Falklands Development Corporation, FIDC

  • Thursday, July 9th 2026 - 04:13 UTC

    Cuba details business reforms opening private firms to foreign investment

    Among the changes, authorities will allow the creation of larger private firms, with no size limit, and let a single person own more than one company

    The Cuban government on Wednesday set out the scope of measures on the management model for its state and private economic actors, part of a package of 176 reforms approved in June by the National Assembly with the stated aim of liberalizing and decentralizing the island's economy.

  • Wednesday, July 8th 2026 - 07:20 UTC

    Milei plans US-style government shutdown mechanism to cap Argentina's spending

    “We are working on setting up the shutdown of the executive branch, of politics really,” Milei said in a streaming interview

    Argentine President Javier Milei announced on Tuesday that he will send Congress a bill to introduce a government “shutdown” mechanism, modeled on the US system, that would bar the executive from continuing to spend once budget allocations run out. The measure is part of a package of economic reforms with which the president aims to relaunch his administration.