PULP MILLS (JUDGMENT) 64 This Group . . . is to produce an initial report within a period of 180 days.” 133. Uruguay regards this press release as an agreement that binds the two States, whereby they decided to make the GTAN the body within which the direct negotiations between the Parties provided for by Article 12 of the 1975 Statute would take place, since its purpose was to analyse the effects on the environment of the “operation of the cellulose plants that are being constructed in the Eastern Republic of Uruguay”. Uruguay infers from this that the Parties were agreed on the construction of the mills and that they had limited the extent of the dispute between them to the environmental risks caused by their operation. Uruguay sees proof of this in the referral to the Court on the basis of Article 12 of the 1975 Statute, which allows either Party to apply to the Court in the event of the negotiations failing to produce an agreement within the period of 180 days. According to Uruguay, therefore, the agreement contained in the press release of 31 May 2005, by paving the way for the direct negotiations provided for in Article 12, covered any possible procedural irregularities in relation to Articles 7 et seq. of the 1975 Statute. Uruguay points out that it communicated all the necessary information to Argentina during the 12 meetings held by the GTAN and that it transmitted the Orion (Botnia) port project to CARU, as agreed by the Parties at the first meeting of the GTAN. 134. Uruguay further notes that the 1975 Statute is silent as to whether the notifying State may or may not implement a project while negotiations are ongoing. It acknowledges that, under international law, the initiating State must refrain from doing so during the period of negotiation, but takes the view that this does not apply to all work and, in particular, that preparatory work is permitted. Uruguay acknowledges that it carried out such work, for example construction of the foundations for the Orion (Botnia) mill, but in its view this did not involve faits accomplis which prevented the negotiations from reaching a conclusion. Uruguay also considers that it had no legal obligation to suspend any and all work on the port. 135. Argentina considers that no acceptance on its part of the construction of the disputed mills can be inferred from the terms of the press release of 31 May 2005. It submits that in creating the GTAN, the Parties did not decide to substitute it for CARU, but regarded it as a means of negotiation that would co-exist with the latter. Contrary to Uruguay, Argentina takes the view that this matter has been submitted to the Court on the basis of Article 60 of the 1975 Statute and not of Article 12, since Uruguay, by its conduct, has prevented the latter from being used as a basis, having allegedly disregarded the entire procedure laid down in Chapter II of the Statute. Argentina therefore 54