Uruguay and Argentina signed on Friday an agreement to build a re-gasification plant for liquid natural gas to help meet their energy needs. The floating re-gasification plant will supply the two nations with 10 million cubic meters a day of natural gas, scalable to 15 million, starting in 2013 according to an official statement.
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.
President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced Friday that Argentina’s economy is 2010 expanded 9.1% and unemployment in the fourth quarter experienced a further drop and now stands at a record low of 7.3%.
Argentina and Brazil agreed Friday to set up a Monitoring Committee in order to exclude Brazilian products from being affected by the imports non-automatic licence system announced this week by the administration of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip Crowley assured that the US government “has no reason to apologize” to Argentina in the case of the “sensitive materials” that were seized in a US Air Force plane by the local government last week, amid accusations of “attempting to smuggle surveillance and communications equipment.”
Imports restrictions imposed this week by the Argentine government with the purpose of “preserving the re-industrialization process” cover approximately 200 products totalling annual imports of a billion US dollars, according to preliminary reports.
Argentine Judge Ezequiel Berón de Astrada requested on Tuesday Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman; Security Minister Nilda Garré; and the US Embassy “all the information they have” on the incident regarding the US Air Force plane seized in Ezeiza international airport.
A majority of Argentines, 74%, believes that inflation is harming their finances and a similar percentage, 74%, considers the administration of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is hardly interested in the issue, according to a public opinion poll published Sunday in Buenos Aires La Nacion.
The head of Argentina’ powerful Business Leaders Association (ADE) urged the government to “stop denying inflation” and rejected the notion that businessmen are responsible for price hikes.
A former secretary of Nestor Kirchner, the late ex-president of Argentina, has claimed she was his long-term mistress weeks after being sacked by his widow and successor, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.