Source: Ponta News - 11/08/2010

The recent controversy involving trade on the border between Ponta Porã and Pedro Juan Caballero may prevent an investment of US $ 3,5 million. Shopping China entrepreneurs, who are building a new shopping center, would be abandoning the project due to the inconveniences experienced in recent weeks.

Even with the meetings promoted by the city halls of the two cities, the Paraguayan press continues to see the “blockade” as a scandal. Some newspapers even consider Operation Nabileque, carried out by the CMO (Western Military Command) in the border area, to be seen as "a show of strength," according to an article in the ABC Color newspaper.

The operation serves to train the troops and focuses on combating border crimes. It has nothing to do with the case of the “wall” that would be erected to close the border.

Last Thursday, barriers and walls appeared to prevent access to the streets of Pedro Juan on the Brazilian side. Supposedly, at the request of merchants in the municipality of Mato Grosso do Sul.

Several Paraguayan workers carried out the "works" and replied to journalists that even with the controversy, the order was to finish the wall "as quickly as possible".

The president of the Ponta Porã Commercial Association, Evaldo Pavão Senjer, said the blockades would be a reaction by society against the construction of illegal access by Paraguayans. He also said that unfair competition, due to taxes, hinders trade in the Brazilian municipality.

In the case of Shopping China, Paraguayan businessmen report that merchants had planted eucalyptus trees in front of the construction area of ​​the new shopping center, to prevent vision. They also ordered the blocks.

One of the owners of Shopping China, Felipe Cogorno, told the Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color that there must be legal guarantees from the authorities, or the investment will be canceled. Cogorno also said that the work involves two investors, including Petrobras. "On the one hand is Petrobras, which will build a service station (gas station) and we will build a supermarket and a gas station for large trucks", he said.

He calls for a reaction from the authorities of both countries, as the blockades and eucalyptus will close the border in front of the future shopping center. Cogorno threatens to interrupt construction and take it to the city of Salto del Guairá, near the border with Mundo Novo.

"There, the authorities called us and showed solidarity with us, in addition to offering all the legal guarantees necessary to invest, which is not the case here (Pedro Juan Caballero)," he said.

Unfair competition - According to Senjer, illegal access is yet another chapter in the list of problems that Paraguayan commerce represents for Ponta Porã. “Our trade here only survives if it promotes, draws a car”.

He denounces that even the basic supermarket items are bought in the
Paraguay by the residents of Ponta Porã. "They deliver here, without invoice, what constitutes a crime of misappropriation".

He also criticized Petrobras. Senjer considers the company's concession for the construction of the gas station on the Paraguayan side an affront. "The problem is that they will sell, in front of our stations, at a 30% lower price."

Source: CampoGrandeNews