(Dow Jones) -- Argentina's government and Monsanto Co. gave mixed signals in a row over royalty payments, with a government official saying a resolution was imminent while Monsanto pointed to hurdles that remain.
The dispute concerns how Monsanto collects royalties for soybeans containing genes engineered by the company. Agricultural authorities under Argentine President Mauricio Macri have questioned Monsanto's effort to collect payments from farmers. Monsanto insists that the royalties are necessary to recoup investment in developing seeds that can withstand bugs and pesticides.
The disagreement escalated last month when Monsanto canceled plans to launch new biotech soybeans in Argentina and said it may withdraw other seeds already sold there. Monsanto -- currently the subject of a $62 billion takeover bid by Bayer AG -- is the world's largest seed supplier by sales, while Argentina is the third-largest grower of soybeans.
Jesus Silveyra, under-secretary of agricultural markets at Argentina's Ministry of Agroindustry, told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday at a conference in London that the matter will be resolved soon.
"We are in dialogue with Monsanto and we think in two weeks we will end this problem," Silveyra said.
"The arrangement is 90% done, but we have to make certain official resolutions," he added.
Monsanto's assessment of how talks were progressing was more cautious. A spokeswoman for the St. Louis-based company said the parties are in "constructive conversations" but said some matters still need to be ironed-out.
"While discussions have been positive, certain items remain to be solved, and, importantly, it remains to be seen if the soybean royalty collection system can operate with integrity, longer term," she said in an emailed statement.
The row erupted when Argentina's new government questioned the legality of Monsanto's system of charging farmers royalties based on tests carried out by private grain companies. Monsanto turned to that arrangement after struggling to maintain protections on its seed genes in Argentina.
Monsanto has argued the government's new stance isn't valid because its soybean genes are patented.
Silveyra didn't elaborate on the details of the proposed resolution, but said it would transfer responsibility for testing for the presence of Monsanto's genes to the government.
"The government will start to control the biotechnology and not Monsanto," Silveyra said. "A private company cannot put rules into the commercial sector."