In September and October of 2014, a group of Dutch students of the University of Twente made a Study-tour with the following theme: ‘Latin Links 2014’ is about connection and collaboration between Argentina and Uruguay. The capitals of these countries, Buenos Aires and Montevideo, are situated closely together and both at the edges of the Rio de la Plata, a wide estuary with much sedimentation. The two countries have to work together and show in a number of projects that this is already happening. It is interesting to see how is dealt with different interests in projects and how the countries differ or are alike. /p>
When I was invited to make a presentation in English on the first day of their tour, in which other Argentine exhibitors also would make their presentation, I informed them about the tense relations between the 2 countries. The transshipment of export-cargoes from upriver-ports of the Parana-river and from ports in the South Atlantic, which were carried out since several years through the port of Montevideo were forbidden in October 2013 by the Undersecretary of Ports and Waterways of Argentina. The terminal operators of the port of Buenos Aires had been pressing for this measure since several years, but everybody was aware that the logistic chain through the port of Montevideo was the most economical. In fact, a year later, many of the exporters which were affected by this measure, are now starting to protest against this measure. And it was just one of the other exhibitors who had been very much in favor of this prohibition who shared the roundtable with me, so I had to be careful in the way I had to give those students my advice. Unfortunately there is little in their final report about the principal theme of their study and more was written about argentine and uruguayan wine, than about the principal theme of Latin Links 2014, which shows that they could not accomplish much of their good intentions.