Weekly Report - 24 February 2011 (WR-11-08)

MERCOSUR | Trade protectionism. Argentina's government has slapped quotas on a dozen imported goods, such as luxury automobiles, consumer electronics, glass, textiles, white goods and metal products, to protect local industry “from unfair competition from South-East Asia and China," the industry minister Debora Giorgi, said. Importers will now have to request a special permit for these products. China has retaliated in the past, refusing to import Argentine soy oil for six months, and will do so again. Manufacturers in fellow Mercosur countries, who have had cause to complain about Argentine trade protectionism in the past (flouting the internal rules of the customs union) reacted angrily. Giorgi's Brazilian peer, Fernando Pimentel, travelled to Buenos Aires on 18 February to secure exemption from the import quota for Brazilian products. Uruguay's President José Mujica said he would express his disquiet about the measures to President Cristina Fernández in Buenos Aires on 25 February. Uruguay's foreign minister Luis Almagro said the government was negotiating a “fast-track formula for Uruguayan products affected by the permits".

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