Brussels, 29/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - Despite its dispute with Argentina over trade and investment, the EU is not for the moment considering ending talks with Mercosur.
The EU is separating its trade argument with Argentina from its free-trade negotiations with the Mercosur bloc (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, with Venezuela in the process of joining), talks which, for the moment, it has no intention of suspending, revealed Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht as he announced on 25 May that the Commission had referred the import restrictions imposed by Buenos Aires to the WTO. “Not at this moment in time”, replied the commissioner when asked if the EU would suspend the trade talks going on within the broader framework of an association agreement with the South American bloc, when Argentina has, since 2008, been heaping provocation upon provocation, with one protectionist measure after another, as illustrated by the nationalisation of YPF, the Argentinean subsidiary of Spanish oil company Repsol, in April of this year. Spain, hit by Argentina's breach of their bilateral investment agreement, proposed at the end of April that the EU continue its negotiations with Mercosur, but without Argentina, or through a non-regional agreement, negotiated country by country, like the multi-party agreement between the EU on the one hand and Colombia and Peru on the other, after Bolivia and Ecuador withdraw from the EU-Andean Community bloc-to-bloc talks.
Argentina extends protectionism to mining sector. Mining companies operating in Argentina will have to submit requests to the government 120 days before importing goods and set up an import substitution system to encourage the purchase of locally made goods, the Planning Ministry announced on Monday 28 May. Mining companies will also have to submit quarterly estimates of their purchasing needs, which will be vetted by a special working group at the Mining Ministry. (EH/transl.rt)