Spain has few ways to pressure Argentina over YPF
Source: Reuters
Spain has few ways to pressure Argentina over YPF
By Fiona Ortiz
MADRID | Wed Apr 18, 2012 5:12pm EDT
(Reuters) - Spain has threatened to retaliate against Argentina for nationalizing a Spanish energy firm, but Madrid will find it hard to put real pressure on a maverick nation that has been shut out of world debt markets and has ignored international fines in previous disputes.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez said this week she would fulfill a life-long dream and solve her country's energy shortage by seizing control of its biggest oil company, YPF, a subsidiary of Spain's Repsol.
Madrid immediately threatened economic and diplomatic "consequences". But given Argentina's record with international investment and the restrictions on what sort of retaliation Spain can take, the threat may well be hollow.
"The threat really has very little credibility. What measures can they take?" said Jose Ignacio Torreblanca, head of the Madrid office of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/18/us-spain-argentina-idUSBRE83H0S120120418
