The World Bank approved last week a loan for 49 million dollars to support Uruguayan farmers in adopting environmentally sustainable practices to improve the resilience of their production systems in response to the effects of climate variability.
President Jose Mujica said on Sunday that his peer from Brazil Dilma Rousseff will make a strong declaration in support of Uruguay when the next G20 summit to counter French President Nicholas Sarkozy recent statements in Cannes describing one of Mercosur junior members as a “fiscal haven”
The Mexican president underlined the strategic importance of Uruguay since it is the only Mercosur member that has a free trade agreement with Mexico, thus making it the ‘strategic partner’ of Mexico in Mercosur.
Uruguay received a huge political boost from Mexico (the same it was denied from its Mercosur partners under influence from Argentina) in its dispute with the recent G20 summit which through spokesperson French president Nicholas Sarkozy described Uruguay as a ‘fiscal haven’.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica said that Mercosur “is not moving forward or backwards” but is certainly working much better than the European Union where old experienced nations “made a mess of it”. Nevertheless, Uruguay will not stay put “licking its wounds”, it will look for other trade links.
Uruguay had to stand up to a world power and deny dock access to a Royal Navy vessel on its way to the Falklands/Malvinas to retain good relations with Argentina, admitted the Uruguayan President Jose Mujica in Guadalajara where he met with members of the Uruguayan colony in Mexico.
Argentina will not take back the millions of Pesos that thousands of tourists spend in neighbouring Uruguay during the summer season. That was the reply to a request from Uruguay’s largest bank branch in the City of Buenos Aires, according to banking sources in Montevideo.
Uruguay won’t accept bids above 65 dollars a megawatt-hour from developers bidding to sell power from wind farms as concerns mount that rates have dropped too low.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica arrived Tuesday in Mexico for a two day visit to promote bilateral trade and to address with his host Felipe Calderon issues related to recent discrepancies with the G20 that described Uruguay and Panama as “fiscal havens”.
If proof was ever needed that adversity leads to a greater determination to succeed, it has been amply provided in a recent trip by the Falkland Islands Senior Agricultural Advisor, “Mac” McArthur, on a trade mission and cultural visit to Uruguay.