2023-12-28 02:15:31
© Reuters. Demonstrators protesting against the economic policy of Argentine President Javier Milei in front of the Courts, in Buenos Aires 12/27/2023 REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, sent this Wednesday to Congress a package of laws to be debated in extraordinary sessions, among which the declaration of economic emergency until December 31, 2025 stands out.
“To provide an effective solution to the current crisis, the Congress of the Argentine Nation must adopt a set of emergency measures to return liberal democracy and the market economy and advance the reform of the State”, indicates the text of the 351-page project .
In the so-called “Law of bases and starting points for the freedom of Argentines”, the government proposes that “legislative delegation should effectively be had (…) declaring the public emergency in economic, financial, fiscal, provisional, security, defense, tariff, energy, health, administrative and social” until the end of 2025.
Furthermore, the package establishes “the greatest deregulation of commerce, services and industry throughout the national territory”, the promotion of productive reactivation through the elimination of restrictions on competition and the reorganization of national public administration.
The project also foresees the privatization of 41 public companies “in order to generate greater competitiveness and economic efficiency”, including the oil company YPF and Aerolíneas Argentinas.
The government also proposed an increase in export tariffs on e from 12% to 15% and on bran e from 31% to 33%, a proposal that generated complaints from the sector.
The Argentine Agroindustrial Council (CAA) said the increase in tariffs undermines the objective of generating jobs, increasing production and boosting exports.
“Although the need to achieve fiscal balance is shared, this objective will not be achieved by increasing taxes on regional agro-industrial economies and other agro-industrial export value chains, such as meat, fisheries, the wheat industrial complex, among others” , the CAA said in a statement.
The project also establishes the modification of the electoral system through the elimination of primary elections.
The announcement of the package of measures was made in the morning by the presidential spokesperson, while thousands of people from various trade union associations protested in the streets against a mega decree of necessity and urgency (DNU) announced last week that complements the project presented this Wednesday.
“This is in the hands of the Legislative Power. The nation’s senators and deputies will have to choose whether we move towards freedom, to end this decadence,” he added, referring to a deep economic crisis, with triple-digit inflation, reserves negative net international rates and poverty above 40% of the population.
The new package, which will be dealt with by Congress in extraordinary sessions until January 31st, adds to the DNU announced by Milei last week, which includes more than 300 measures aimed at deregulating the economy, eliminating price controls, liberalizing foreign trade and promoting industrial activity.
Around 20,000 people summoned by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the Construction Workers Union (UOCRA) and the State Workers Association (ATE), among others, marched with banners to the headquarters of the Buenos Aires Courts to demand the “unconstitutionality of the decree”.
“It is null, of absolute nullity, not because it derogates from 300 laws, but also because it does not meet the requirements that the Constitution establishes for decrees of necessity and urgency,” Julio Piumato, general secretary of the Judiciary Union, told Reuters during the demonstration .
“It violates the Constitution because it undermines the labor and social rights of the majority of Argentines,” he added.
A day after the announcement of the decree, thousands of Argentines also took to the streets to protest by banging pots against the measures aimed at reforming the economy and which include the repeal of labor standards, the privatization of state-owned companies and the modification of the Civil and Commercial Code.
The libertarian president states that his goal is to reduce the State and eliminate the fiscal deficit so that the economy can grow again.
The president’s measures may face obstacles to their approval in Congress, as the ruling party “A Liberdade Avança” does not have a majority in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate and could be rejected by the Judiciary, which would prevent their implementation.
Milei, a political newcomer who took office on December 10 after winning the runoff by a wide margin, said on a local television program on Tuesday that he would call a plebiscite — non-binding — if the mega-decree is rejected. in Congress.
(Reporting by Lucila Sigal)
((São Paulo Editorial Translation)) REUTERS AC
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