Uruguay's industry sector upset over new local trade regulations

The Uruguayan industrial sector warned that certain members of the Mercosur “are failing to fulfill their obligations” and targeted Argentina directly by pointing out that the new trade regulations set by the local Government “are hurting production" in the neighbouring country.

The head of the Foreign Trade Committee in the Uruguayan Chamber of Industry, Rafael Sanguinetti, accused Argentina of “systematically blocking” all Uruguayan exports, something that "is in flagrant violation of their contractual obligations.”

“We want results no matter what. Maybe our Government could take a tougher stance on the matter. We dismantled our production structure because of the Mercosur, thinking in the region first in order to be able to export to the rest of the world later. But now we are depending on a lot of Argentine products entering our country when we are unable to send ours to them,” he complained.

Sanguinetti added that their perception is that the Mercosur “not only is stuck, like President José Mujica said, but it also lacks structure. The regional bloc is not fulfilling its contractual obligations.”

“All this has complicated things even more and it’s almost ridiculous if you think that Uruguay only represents a 2.04 percent of the total of Argentine exports,” he stated.

“Many sectors in the Uruguayan industry are suffering because of Argentina’s new regulations, specially the food and textile sectors,” he concluded.