Argentine President Stands By Grain Export Tax Hikes
BUENOS AIRES (AP)--President Cristina Fernandez dug in her heels Monday over contentious grain export tax hikes, rebuffing farmers who are seeking talks to end a three-month standoff that has crippled Argentina's farm sector.
Fernandez also announced that revenue from the duties will fund social programs, including the construction of 30 new hospitals, housing for the poorand rural roads. It was the first time she has given details of her plans for the money.
"I ask that all Argentines commit themselves to the fight against poverty and the redistribution of wealth," Fernandez said. "It is impossible to redistribute wealth without touching extraordinary profits."
Fernandez spoke Monday just hours after her government refused to attend a meeting called by the national ombudsman with leaders of the four main rural groups, saying no mediators are needed.
Farmers claim they need the profits to reinvest in their lands to increase productivity.
During a news conference later Monday, Mario Llambias, head of the Argentine Rural Confederation, criticized Fernandez's determination to use farm profits to fund social programs.
"We agree with the destination of the funds," he said. "What we don't agree with is their origin."
Argy farmers end strike, resume exports today
Reports are coming in that the Argy farmers strike has ended and exports will resume as early as today. I can only assume that they have been looking at prices increasing in the US and thinking "come on lads lets have a piece of the action. What's a 13 percent tax hike with soybeans pushing $15/bushel?" Either the overnight market hasn't heard this yet, or is simply choosing to ignore it. Who'd have thought that soybeans would be 30 cents up on the day the strike got lifted?
Links: Oligarch's R Us
And here: Show me the money
The Argy Bargy Rumour Mill
Various reports have been circulating over the last few days relating to the ongoing Argentine dispute.
With only a couple of days to the end of truce deadline on May 2, conciliatory statements from both sides and a new minister seem to forecast a more positive scenario for the talks which so far have proved frustrating and non conductive for the farmers.
Both parties apparently met last night at an undisclosed location, but as yet no news is forthcoming on the outcome of that meeting. Yet, ideas that some sort of compromise might be reached are gathering strength.
The government will be keen not to be seen to capitulate on this issue, yet may have paved the way for a partial climb-down with the dismissal last week of the Economy Minister Martin Lousteau. He is accredited by many farmers as being the mastermind behind the sliding tax scale they oppose.
He could be the fall guy the government need to save losing face over this issue.
There are also stories circulating that many farmers, nearing the end of the soybean harvest, may be suffering storage & cash-flow problems that an all-out strike will do little to alleviate.
It may be that some are in a less militant mood for now, at least until some beans have been sold & delivered to the ports.
Argy bargy olive branch??
Argentina's government unveiled a package of measures on Monday to help small farmers in a bid to end a 19-day-old farm strike against a tax hike on soy exports.
Economy Minister Martin Lousteau said small-scale farmers would be given a rebate on soy and sunflower export taxes as well as compensation for transport costs for those in far-flung areas. "We must differentiate for small farmers," he said in a televised speech.
Lousteau said the government would offer refunds on export taxes equivalent to the loss that these smaller producers have incurred since the tax was raised under a new system introduced on March 11, when it provoked farmers to block roads and withhold supplies.
Vowing to challenge the heavy concentration of soy production in the hands of a few large producers, Lousteau said the measure would cover 80% of all producers, those who produce just 20% of the country's total output. Additionally, special transport subsidies will be given to small producers in Argentina's more distant, poorer northern provinces.
And in what he said was a bid to shift more production to traditional products, Lousteau said cheap credit plans would be offered to dairy producers.
As with the measure announced on March 11, which put in place a sliding-scale soy export tax rate based on international prices - and which initially boosted it from a fixed rate of 35% to 46%, according to the prevailing international price for soy - Lousteau argued that the latest measures were consistent with an attempt to reduce the dominance and concentration of big soy producers.
He spoke in advance of President Cristina Fernandez, whose much-anticipated speech comes as Argentines faces ever-growing food shortages in supermarkets and stores.
Meanwhile Argentine border police cleared a roadblock in the central province of Entre Rios, allowing trucks stranded by the country's longest farmers' strike to get through as the government seeks to end food shortages. Roadblocks in other parts of the country continued, and the farmers cleared from the Entre Rios roadblock pledged to mount protests elsewhere.
