URUGUAY: Argentina slams a decision by Uruguayan President Jose Mujica to increase production at a border pulp mill that environmentalists say is polluting a shared river

Record ID: 351575

  • Title: URUGUAY: Argentina slams a decision by Uruguayan President Jose Mujica to increase production at a border pulp mill that environmentalists say is polluting a shared river
  • Date: 3rd October 2013
  • Summary: FRAY BENTOS, URUGUAY (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PAPER MILL VARIOUS OF PROTEST NEAR PAPER MILL
  • Embargoed: 18th October 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: Business,International Relations,Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVA9YXLNLML62M3IXWPR4R8WRBTQ
  • Story Text: Uruguay on Wednesday (October 02) allowed the world's top graphic paper maker, Finland's UPM-Kymmene, to increase pulp production at a local plant, raising tensions with neighbouring Argentina over accusations of environmental damages.
    The plant, located in Uruguay close to the Argentine border, will be allowed to produce up to 1.2 million tonnes of pulp per year, up from the previously permitted 1.1 million tonnes.
    At a news conference in Montevideo, Uruguayan President Jose Mujica said the decision was "provisional" and subject to UPM-Kymmene's compliance with environmental standards.

    "We've stuck with the facts without room for negotiation on the basis of the facts regarding the claim - a request - a couple of years ago from UPM to raise by ten to 20 percent its production. And we have authorised this company to increase by half what they had requested, approximately 100,000 tonnes provisionally, I repeat provisionally. That is to say that it is revocable," he said.
    Although rejecting an original request by UPM-Kymmene to increase pulp production to 1.3 million tonnes, Mujica defended the controversial border pulp mill's record.

    "This factory today has the best numbers in the world of the companies that manufacture pulp from eucalyptus," he added.
    In Buenos Aires, Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman denounced the "unilateral" decision by Uruguay, and said Argentina would take its case to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

    "The unilateral decision from Uruguay, authorising the increase in production for the UPM/BOTNIA company, leaves our country with the judicial obligation of going to the International Court at the Hague, as it affects the environmental sovereignty of the Argentine Republic, violates treaties between both nations and the same judgement of the International Court at the Hague," said Timerman.
    Argentina has said the pulp mill pollutes the Uruguay River, which separates the two countries. Officials from Uruguay and Argentina met over the years-old dispute this week but failed to reach an agreement on the plant's output.
    Timerman warned the dispute may again strain ties between the Latin American nations.

    "Argentina laments that the interests of the UPM/BOTNIA are so powerful that they have turned into the factor that determines the relationship between Uruguay and Argentina. In the same way, we have opposed the actions of vulture funds, we will not allow (us) to bow down to a transnational company," he said.
    The $1.2 billion plant, located in the Uruguayan city of Fray Bentos, represents one of the largest private investments in Uruguay's history.
    However, environmentalists have protested by blocking the bridge that provides access to the plant from Argentina, but Uruguay argues the installation meets international environmental standards.
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