Weekly Report - 07 November 2013 (WR-13-44)

URUGUAY-ARGENTINA | Rising commercial tensions. On 5 November Uruguay’s former foreign minister, Didier Opertti (1998-2005), suggested that the Uruguayan government denounce before the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) dispute resolution tribunal and the World Trade Organization (WTO) new Argentine measures forbidding Argentine exporters from using Uruguayan ports to tranship their goods. Opertti’s comments come after Argentina’s ports subsecretariat unexpectedly issued a new order on 29 October stipulating that Argentine imports “can only be transhipped in national ports or in ports of Mercosur member States and associate States that have existing maritime cargo agreements with the Argentine Republic”.