1. How would you describe the current state of diplomatic relations between Paraguay and South Africa?
Paraguay and South Africa are linked by the Preferential Trade Agreement between Mercosur and the Southern African Customs Union, signed in two stages, in Salvador, Brazil, in December 2008, and in Maseru, Lesotho, in April 2009, and brought into force on 1 April 2016. It was the first agreement the Southern African Customs Union concluded with another regional bloc following the renegotiation of its founding instrument in 2002, and it remains a defining instrument of cooperation between two regions that share the South Atlantic.
The Agreement covers more than one thousand tariff lines on each side, with preference margins ranging from ten to one hundred per cent, and provides the regulatory disciplines on which trade liberalisation depends, including rules of origin, customs cooperation, and dispute settlement. It binds four members of Mercosur, namely Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, with the five members of the Southern African Customs Union: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa. For South African exporters, the Agreement opens preferential access to the Mercosur market of approximately 295 million people. For Paraguayan and Mercosur exporters, it opens the same to the Southern African Customs Union. The Agreement is in force, the preferences are operational, and the platform exists for businesses on both sides to use.
2. Beyond agriculture, which sectors do you believe hold the greatest potential for expanding trade in the coming years?
Paraguay’s economy today is defined by three transformations, each of which positions the country as one of the most attractive investment destinations in Latin America.
The first is energy. More than 99.7% of Paraguay’s electricity is generated from renewable sources, almost entirely hydroelectric, and the country stands among the largest net exporters of clean electricity in the world. This abundance now anchors a new generation of investment in green hydrogen, green ammonia, and energy-intensive industries that depend on a clean and reliable power supply, with major projects already under construction near our binational hydroelectric facilities. As global manufacturers move toward cleaner production, Paraguay is positioned to supply the energy that this transition requires.
The second is industrial production for export. Paraguay’s investment regime, modernised through legislation enacted in 2025, allows foreign investors producing for export to operate under a single tax of 1%, with full benefits guaranteed for two decades. The country is home to six of the eight largest manufacturers of automotive wire harnesses in the world, supplying brands familiar to every South African motorist, and this same platform is now expanding into textiles, plastics, electronics, and digital services.
The third is forestry and value-added wood products. Paraguay’s natural conditions for fast-growing plantation forestry have brought the country into the global pulp markets, with major investments now under construction. These sectors form part of a broader industrial transformation across the Paraguayan economy, increasingly recognised by international capital markets.
Agriculture remains the foundation on which all of this is built. Paraguay is among the world’s most competitive producers of soya, beef, maize, rice, and value-added agricultural products. The transformation now under way builds on that foundation rather than displacing it.
3. What opportunities exist to strengthen tourism links between South Africa and Paraguay, and are there initiatives underway to promote Paraguay as a travel destination for South African tourists?
In 2030, Asunción will host one of the three Centenary Celebration matches of the FIFA World Cup, marking the centenary of the first World Cup, held in South America in 1930. It will be the first World Cup match ever played on Paraguayan soil, and it will take place in our capital, the home of CONMEBOL, the South American football confederation. The decision honours both Paraguay’s place in the history of the game and the broader return of the World Cup to two continents that hold it dear, with Morocco hosting on African soil. For South African football enthusiasts and travellers, 2030 offers a natural occasion to discover Paraguay.
Iguazu Falls, one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, where the river drops through more than two hundred and seventy cataracts in dense subtropical forest, can be reached through Paraguay. Visitors who come to Paraguay can also experience the Itaipu hydroelectric plant, which remains one of the great engineering achievements of the twentieth century and continues to generate the renewable energy that powers much of our country and significant parts of our region. South African passport holders may travel to Paraguay without a visa for stays of up to ninety days, which removes a common barrier to discovery.
Paraguay welcomes South African visitors today, and will welcome them in greater numbers as the world returns to our region for the centenary of the World Cup.
4. Could you share some key highlights from your diplomatic and political career, and what inspired you to take on the role of Ambassador to South Africa?
My more than four decades in the Foreign Service have taken me through postings in the Holy See, Italy, Brazil, and France. Before being appointed Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa, I served for more than twelve years as Director General of Consular Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Asunción. That tenure taught me, above all, that behind every policy there is a person, and that the strength of any diplomatic service lies in how seriously it carries that responsibility. It is a conviction I bring with me to this mission.
What drew me to Pretoria was the substance of the post. South Africa hosts the second largest diplomatic community in the world, and the city is a meeting point for governments from every region. From this Embassy, Paraguay holds concurrent accreditation to fourteen further countries across the African continent, which makes Pretoria not only a major diplomatic capital but the platform from which Paraguay engages with much of Africa itself.
Beyond the diplomatic dimension, there is the country itself. South Africa offers a geographical depth that few nations on any continent can match, with landscapes that range from desert to coastline within a single border, two oceans meeting at the southern tip of the continent, and a wealth of wildlife and natural settings that have long made this country one of the most striking destinations in the world. This is the country that meets the eye every morning.
5. What has surprised you most about South Africa since assuming your post?
It is the linguistic life of South Africa that has impressed me most. This country recognises twelve official languages, including South African Sign Language, and the multilingualism of daily life here is something a visitor feels almost immediately. Paraguay is unusual in the Americas. Spanish and Guaraní stand together as our two official languages, both spoken across the population, both taught in our schools, both alive in our music, our radio, and the rhythms of our daily speech. To arrive in South Africa from Paraguay is to find a country that carries something of what we ourselves carry. It is a recognition I had not expected, and a genuine pleasure of my time here.
6. What is your vision for the relationship between Paraguay and South Africa over the next five years?
Paraguay enters this period with credentials few economies in the region can match. The country generates more than 99.7% of its electricity from hydroelectric sources, ranking among the world’s largest net exporters of clean power. The economy is investment grade, the growth rate is the highest sustained in Latin America, and an industrial transformation is under way across the productive sectors. As global manufacturers seek economies that combine clean energy at scale with strong economic fundamentals, Paraguay is positioned distinctively for the investment now flowing toward the few economies that bring the two together.
The substance of the relationship between Paraguay and South Africa, as it grows over the next five years, will rest on institutional foundations already in place. The Preferential Trade Agreement between Mercosur and the Southern African Customs Union remains the foundation on which the two countries engage in trade, and that framework now sits within a broader continental project that is reshaping the way Africa engages the world. The African Continental Free Trade Area brings together fifty-four states and a market of approximately 1.4 billion people, and it represents one of the most ambitious integration projects of the contemporary era, opening pathways to stronger value chains, greater productive capacity, and shared growth across the continent. The next five years will be the period in which businesses on both sides of the Atlantic discover what the Agreement already offers.
7. How do you see relations between Africa and Latin America evolving, and what role can Paraguay play in strengthening these ties?
The relationship between Africa and Latin America is among the most underdeveloped of the major cross-regional relationships in contemporary international life, and that is precisely what makes it one of the most promising. The two regions share the South Atlantic. They are home to a combined population of more than two billion people. They are emerging at a moment when the global economy is reorganising around new partnerships and new patterns of trade. And both are now building the institutional architecture that makes serious cross-regional engagement possible.
Mercosur and the African Continental Free Trade Area are answers to a similar question, namely how regions build prosperity through integration rather than fragmentation. Mercosur was founded in 1991 and brings together Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay in a customs union of approximately 295 million people. The African Continental Free Trade Area, founded in 2018 and now in operational rollout, brings together fifty-four states and approximately 1.4 billion people. Each project is a generation-defining commitment. Each represents the conviction that economic scale and shared standards are built through cooperation, not through isolation. The conversation between two continents whose institutional commitments now point in the same direction is one of the defining cross-regional stories of the twenty-first century. It is a story only now being written.
Paraguay engages this conversation from a particular position. As a founding member of Mercosur, the country has been part of the South American integration project since its inception. Paraguay sits at the geographic centre of South America, sharing land borders with Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia, and Asunción is the seat of the South American Football Confederation, CONMEBOL, which gives the country a presence in the cultural life of the continent that extends well beyond its political borders. From this Embassy in Pretoria, Paraguay engages with much of the African continent through concurrent accreditation to fourteen further countries.
The role Paraguay can play in strengthening ties between the two regions follows from these positions. Paraguay can be a serious interlocutor within Mercosur on questions concerning the Africa relationship, a credible voice on the institutional and economic substance that holds the conversation together, and a country whose own economic transformation, anchored in renewable energy and open markets, makes it a natural partner for African economies seeking new connections in the Americas. The work is long, the foundations are real, and the conversation is only beginning.
8. Are there current or upcoming investment opportunities in Paraguay that you would like to highlight for South African investors?
Paraguay offers South African investors one of the most distinctive investment climates in Latin America. The economy holds investment-grade sovereign credit ratings from both Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s, achieved in 2024 and 2025, placing Paraguay among the small group of Latin American economies whose creditworthiness is verified at this level. The growth rate has been the strongest in the region for several years, inflation is among the lowest in the Americas, and the currency has been one of the most stable in the world over the past two decades.
The tax structure sits at the heart of Paraguay’s competitive position. Corporate income tax is set at 10%, personal income tax at 10%, and value-added tax at 10%, which together make Paraguay’s tax burden one of the lowest in South America. The country also operates a territorial tax system, meaning that foreign-source income earned outside Paraguay is taxed at 0%. For investors and entrepreneurs whose activities span multiple jurisdictions, this combination is unusual in the region and rare globally.
Two recent legislative developments deepen the proposition. The Investment Law 7548 of 2025 modernised the regime for foreign direct investment, and the new Maquila Law 7547 of 2025 allows companies producing for export to operate under a single tax of 1% on the value added or invoiced in Paraguay, with broad exemptions on the importation of inputs and capital goods, and benefits guaranteed for periods of up to twenty years. Paraguay’s residency framework remains among the more accessible in the Americas for investors who wish to establish a presence in the country itself.
South African investors will find that Paraguay offers a particular set of advantages within the Mercosur common market of approximately 295 million people. The country occupies the geographic centre of South America, bordered by Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia, which positions Paraguay as a natural physical platform for engagement with the broader region. Operating costs are low, the regulatory environment is direct, and the proximity between investors and senior decision-makers means serious projects can be discussed and advanced without extended bureaucratic distance. The same proposition extends to investors elsewhere on the African continent and beyond. The Embassy of Paraguay in Pretoria serves as the point of contact for those who wish to take the conversation further.
