2024-08-01 16:20:15
The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, promised yesterday to the powerful agricultural sector eliminate taxes on exports and exchange barriers, but asked for time to stabilize the economy earlier, in a speech widely applauded by producers.
“This administration will always be on the side of the Argentine countryside,” he emphasized. mercy at the 136th annual exhibition that the Argentine Rural Society (SRA) carries out on its property in the neighborhood of Palermo in Buenos Airess.
First head of state to visit this traditional fair since Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), who was also the first president to attend after 15 years of Kirchnerist governments, Milei promised to “resolve the great burdens that the countryside bears.”
Milei stressed his objective of ending the withholdings on the liquidations that producers receive for their sales abroad, as well as the “exchange rate trap”, the exchange control in force since 2019 which limits access to dollars in a country where the US currency serves as a safe haven for savings.
“Nobody wants to get out of this disastrous model as much as we do, where the State, among others, withholdings y stocks, “It expropriates 70% of what the countryside produces. That will end once and for all,” said Milei.
“But we must also know that removing the patches without first solving the underlying problem would aggravate the crisis we inherited. Therefore, we do not care how much pressure there is and where it comes from, we are not going to rush demagogically, we are going to respect the achievement of the macroeconomic equilibrium and we will move forward as that is achieved,” he added.
Milei came to power last year supported by large agricultural producers. But despite his promises to reduce taxes on the countryside, as soon as he took office he raised tax withholdings. 31% a 33% for exports of flour and soybean oil, two products of great weight in the trade balance of Argentina.
On Sunday, the president of the MRS, Nicholas Pino, He appreciated the presence of mercy in the Rural, but insisted on the sector’s demands.
“We producers need the certainty that you will eliminate the withholdings. If we continue working like this, it is because we trust in his word“, said.
Argentina, known as the world’s breadbasket, is the world’s third largest producer of soybeans, behind United States and Brazil.
It exports 70% of its agro-industrial production, which represented 55% of Argentine exports in 2023, a volume that means significant tax revenues for the State.
The Argentine economy has had a tough year in terms of employment alone, with the loss of 177,000 jobs reported between November 2023 and April 2024, according to a report by the Center for Economic Policy Studies (CEPA).
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2024-08-01 16:20:15