Asunción, IP Agency.- The Paraguayan chancellery, after a meeting with the National Committee of Paraguay – Paraná waterway, manifested its rejection of the retention of a Paraguayan barge, aggravating the situation in the Paraguay – Paraná waterway, and announced that it would not reserve “any of the possible measures to solve this matter”.
In a declaration made after the meeting of the National Committee, the National Chancellor, Rubén Ramírez, regrets the measures imposed by Argentina that restrict the navigation of the waterway Paraguay – Paraná based on a toll unilaterally established outside the current regulatory provisions.
“We regret that the Central Administration of Ports of the Argentinian Republic is continuing dictating measures as the order of prohibition of the embargo on the departure of a Paraguayan-flagged barge loaded and ready to sail with 30 million litres of fuel,” expressed the National Chancellor.
Ramírez regrated that, even when the same Argentinian legislation established that an embargo could not be carried out when the boat was ready, the Argentine Naval Prefecture arbitrarily and unjustifiably detained it, causing direct damage to the affected company.
The Chancellor was also concerned about the fact that Argentina is imposing measures that “can even be interpreted as deliberately to aggravate the situation, taking into account that it is a restriction on the freedom of transit of strategic and sensitive goods for a dignitary country that has committed the supply of fuel and the fluctuation of the price of said input, which represents a serious affectation that has repercussions on Paraguayan society”.
“We reject any procedure of this nature that exacerbates the vulnerability of a signatory state for its condition of landlocked or lead with the vocation of the countries of the La Plata Basin to unite their efforts to promote harmonious development, integration and means a setback to the progress made to facilitate commercial transport, and undermine the institutional framework of the Paraguay-Paraná waterway,” he added.
The chancellor indicated that the Ministry of Foreign Relations there are articulating the means to recur to the arbitrage contemplated in the agreement of the waterway Paraguay – Paraná, and at the same time to appeal for the violation of the Treaty of Asunción, which creates Mercosur, for violation of articles 1 and 2, which lead to a dispute resolution court at the Mercosur level.
At the same time, the President of the Center of River and Maritime Shipowners of Paraguay (Cafym, for its acronym in Spanish), Esteban dos Santos, regrets that Argentina is taking this kind of measures that “hurt a sister nation” and that context, that it is necessary to “support our Chancellery in the actions that is performing”.