Argentina agrees to suspend waterway tolls that caused annoyance in Paraguay

By the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Paraguay

This is a machine translation of the original press release issued in Spanish 

Foreign minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano announced that the Argentine government promised to suspend the collection of tolls on the Paraguay-Paraná waterway, until a comprehensive proposal to improve the entire waterway system is presented to the higher authorities. Efforts to lift the measure begin immediately. Thus, a schedule of payments to the Yacyretá Binational Entity (EBY) was also agreed upon.

It was after the meeting between the President of the Republic, Santiago Peña, and the Minister of Economy of Argentina, Sergio Massa, in Mburuvicha Róga.

"We addressed several issues on the bilateral agenda from the point of view of physical integration and the development of a series of infrastructure projects such as the Pilar-Puerto Cano bridge and the Puerto Falcón-Clorinda bridge, as well as the levels of tasks that are to perform to give fluidity to transit and border traffic," the foreign minister explained at a press conference.

Regarding the issue of the Paraguay-Paraná waterway, the Secretary of State indicated that an agreement was reached to convene a high-level meeting, so that it instructs the Intergovernmental Committee of the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway, to present its solution proposals comprehensive within 60 to 90 days.

During the meeting, “a payment schedule to Yacyretá was also agreed upon that allows our country to enter the normal functioning of the EBY administrative and financial system. Yesterday he paid 10 million dollars, between today and tomorrow he would disburse 3 million dollars and make the full payment for the year 2022. There is a floating debt that they are going to fulfill and the remainder of what is 2023 would remain with a payment proposal”, he said.