The bilateral conflict between Argentina and Uruguay over the UPM/Botnia pulp mill, on the Uruguayan side of the Uruguay River is once again leading to tension between the two neighbours amid reports that the plant’s Finnish owners plan to increase production from 1.1 to 1.3 million tons of cellulose paste per year.
“We have come for people-to-people contacts, to talk about business opportunities and for the resumption of the close and historic links between the Falkland Islands and Uruguay”, repeated Falklands’ lawmaker Dick Sawle during one of his many presentations in Montevideo.
Uruguay’s inflation in August kept climbing and reached 1.04%, totalling 6.74% in the first eight months of the year and 8.86% in the last twelve months, which is well above the Central bank target of 4% to 6%, according to the latest report from the local Statistics Office, INE.
Uruguay has ceased to be the magnet for Argentine funds looking for safe places to save and real estate investments since the Argentine revenue service AFIP, following on the neighbouring countries tax-data exchange agreement, could have access to that information, according to Uruguayan private financial and investment advisors.
The British Embassy Montevideo and Uruguay’s National Research and Innovation Agency signed an agreement to triple the number of scholarships.
President Barack Obama's administration ceded ground last week in the US war on drugs, saying it will not dispute the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado and Washington states. The decision was swiftly hailed by campaigners for the legalization of a substance that, under federal law, remains a Schedule One controlled substance on a par with heroin.
Falkland Islands member of the Legislative Assembly Dick Sawle will be in Montevideo 2-6 September, after spending a week in Brazil involved in business, academia and informal political contacts sponsored by the Foreign Office. In Uruguay according to the official release MLA Sawle will inform about business opportunities with the Falklands and to strengthen the historical ties with Uruguay.
The Uruguayan government fearful of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez’s reaction will not authorize the local UPM pulp mill to expand its production capacity from 1 million to 1.3 million tons annually, in the short term, according to company and government sources.
Uruguay’s First Lady and Senator Lucia Topolansky said that for her fellow countrymen having a dispute with Argentina is “like fighting with yourself” and described as ‘painful’ the several years long conflict between the two countries over the construction of the UPM (former Botnia) pulp mill on a shared river.
Uruguay and Argentina presidents Jose Mujica and Cristina Fernandez seem to have ironed out differences, at least in public and in the pictures, during the inauguration of a gasoline and diesel de-sulphuring plant in Montevideo, which was financed with Venezuelan funds and Argentine technology.