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Mirta Montiel, president of the Encarnación Chamber of Commerce, questioned Governor Oscar Herrera Ahuad’s decision to maintain the closure of borders between the two countries, calling it a “whim” and an act of “xenophobia” towards his compatriots, as he considers that the conditions for the opening of this road are met. She added that they are demanding that the Paraguayan Foreign Ministry enforce the Mercosur treaty that enables them to trade and end the closure of borders. She maintained that the bridge was only closed to small merchants.
Mirta Montiel. Radio Republic
The repeated request of the Incarnacean merchants for the opening of the Roque Gonzáles de Santa Cruz bridge that allows the union of Posadas and Encarnación was made with greater intensity, specifically on the part of Mirta Montiel, head of the Encarnación Chamber of Commerce who had strong qualifications against Governor Oscar Herrera Ahuad.
The head of the Encarnación Chamber of Commerce questioned the refusal of the provincial government of not opening the border crossing and pointed out that this responds to a “whim” of the Governor and even described as an attitude of xenophobia towards Paraguayans.
In this sense, Montiel requested the application of the MERCOSUR treaty in terms of border trade, which, according to what he indicated, would enable them to trade even in times of a pandemic.
He reiterated that the opening of borders is a right of Paraguayans and Argentines and that it can be done through strict sanitary controls, as stated by Itapúa Noticias.
He also demanded that the Paraguayan Foreign Ministry be more firm with the request. “It has to have more force (…) that it be raised and see that legislative tool and that we can use it to open intelligently”
He argued that the border closure did not take place completely and that it allowed the passage of trucks that export grains and other merchandise as well as those who import, according to Itapúa Noticias.
“The Bridge was never closed for large businessmen, large imports and exports never stopped, only the small ones have this ban (…) we want to do things well and have it done with the sanitary protocol since we have an integrated trade”, critical.
He added that they want to make use of their equal rights so that they can trade with the city of Posadas.
Montiel assured that all the conditions are in place for the gradual opening of the borders, in stages and in an intelligent way.
Request of the Governor of Misiones on the closure of borders
Governor Oscar Herrera Ahuad does not back down with the closure of borders
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The head of the provincial government specified that this request was part of the issues discussed with President Alberto Fernández last Friday and among which he highlighted the issue of border closure.
“I have the word of the President and I also spoke with Foreign Minister Felipe Solá, where we were able to explain what the peak of the pandemic that is taking place in South America means today. It is not only a commercial question, but to know how many critical beds Paraguay has, how many Argentina; how many professionals are there on one side and the other and if we have exponential growth it will be very difficult for Paraguay or the department of Itapúa or Misiones itself to be able to answer if the bridge is open ».
Added: “There are technical issues that we put on the table and in the discussion, for which I requested that we can only make this decision when we are fully certain that we will not have circulation in any of these places”, said.
The missionary’s request to President Fernández was broader, as he commented: “On Friday we had a conversation with the President of the Nation and again we insisted with our Province, which has to have a serious border policy of the national order that includes all the variables: taxes and all those that make to the macroeconomic policies of Argentina and our province.
Added: «We request Misiones as a Free Zone territory, We show you with strong numbers what happened all this time of the closed border and what it means for medium and small businesses; We also talk about the debt, the Sustainability Guarantee Fund; of the deficit of the Pension Fund, which has to materialize in the province these days”.
Money flight across the borders of Misiones
In that sense, the head of the Misiones Treasury, Adolfo Safrán He pointed out that after a study prepared by a consulting firm, they have presented to the Nation the damages caused by the flight of money to Paraguay or Brazil, due to the situation of competition with businesses near the borders of Misiones.
«Estimates were always made and one can estimate in relation to how sales recover in local consumption and taking the values of the month of June, (with the open border) the leakage would have been 5,600 million pesos per month, much higher than what we had before ».
The Minister of Finance of Misiones indicated that the document has already been signed and that the request was made to Minister Kulfas.
«The proposal is made for Misiones and the geographic particularity and borders of Misiones warrant having this special regime. Other provinces have borders with other countries, but the geographical conditions are different, the border between Mendoza and Chile is not the same, you have the mountain range in between with more than 100 kilometers of border to cross that here you have a dry border ».
Misiones borders enabled only for cargo transportation
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