Asunción, Agencia IP.- The National Economic Team was urgently summoned on past Sunday to analyze the new impediments to the delivery of gas and fuel for transportation to Paraguay and take measures in this regard.
The motive of urgency was the communication that Paraguayan enterprises received this past Friday, saying that fuel will not be loaded onto the barges that must be made the shipment to our country.
It is added to this the negative to let Paraguayan trucks loaded with fuel into Paraguayan territory or to charge new trucks. This measure affects around 40 detained vehicles from private suppliers and Petropar.
The Minister of Economy, Carlos Fernández, stated that there will be no shortage as there are reserves for about 30 days while other supply routes are analyzed. It is hoped that a solution will be reached to this “unilateral and non-consultative” measure.
“It is an escalation of the measures that constitute harassment by Argentina towards Paraguay”, claimed Minister Fernández.
Informal conversations in the absence of administrative decisions
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rubén Ramírez, added that there is no executive decision from any competent form in Argentina with reasons that prevent the loading of gas or fuel, so the dialogue is carried out “through informal channels”.
“What Argentina is not doing is to give the authorization of export to Paraguay, so we demand explanations about the elements that conduct to this situation”, he explained and said that he would request a meeting of chancellors to analyze the situation.
About Paraguay’s intention to present a complaint for breach of the Mercosur Treaty, as President Santiago Peña announced at the beginning of this month, Foreign Minister Ramírez said that the Government is proposing to relax the integration system to solve “these problems that it poses to us daily”.
Meeting of the National Economic Team
The President of the Republic, Santiago Peña, convened urgently the National Economic Team (EEN, by its acronym in Spanish) into a meeting that included representatives of the private sector: Of the Paraguayan Gas Chamber, the enterprise Copetrol and the Center for River and Maritime Shipowners of Paraguay (Cafym, by its acronym in Spanish).
To the new obstacles imposed by Argentina, it is added the conflict of the Paraguay-Paraná waterway and the pending payments of the Binational Entity Yacyretá (EBY, by its acronym in Spanish), which were also analyzed by the ministers that composed the EEN and the President of the Republic.