Mujica calls for 'shrewdness' to ease impact of Argentina's protectionism

Uruguayan President José "Pepe" Mujica ratified his decision to avoid conflicts with Argentina despite its "brutal protectionist" measures, and said they should face them with "shrewdness."

"Argentina has the sovereign right to take intense protectionist measures, but some of them can affect us, so we must have the unity, inteligence and shrewdness to have policies that ease the effects in our social and economic reality, because we all know the importance of tourism and real state investments," Mujica assured during his weekly radio speech "Habla el presidente" (The President speaks).

"But we make things the other way round, we apply a kind of anit-Argentina speech that does not bring any solution."

Argentina is the third export aim of Uruguayan exports, and represents an important part of real state investment, mainly at the East beaches.

Besides, most of the tourists that visit the country are from Argentina.

This means that the protectionist measures Argentina has applied in the last months have an impact in Uruguay, plus the exchange and import controls.