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The Senate unanimously approved the gondola law promoted by the Government to promote competition

2020-02-28T23:09:14.650Z


The initiative limits the presence of large brands in supermarkets and orders to guarantee the exposure of SME products. Details of the debate.


02/28/2020 - 20:03

  • Clarín.com
  • Politics

In the last extraordinary session before the formal opening of the parliamentary activity, the Senate on Friday approved the so-called gondola law that seeks to avoid the dominant positions of large brands in supermarkets.

With 56 votes in favor and two abstentions, the upper house gave the final endorsement to the project that on November 19 achieved half a sanction in Deputies.

The initiative establishes that commercial chains may grant a supplier 30% of a gondola, which must be shared with at least five other suppliers, and determines that 25 percent should be provided to products of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and 5% to those of family farming.

In addition, it is established that in the exhibition islands and shelves adjacent to the boxes, products made by micro and small national companies, or by cooperatives and mutuals, must be presented in 50% of the space.

President Alberto Fernández promoted the treatment of the project already approved by Deputies, within the framework of the first actions he took to try to de-index the economy and put a brake on the price race, which last year accumulated its biggest jump in 28 years.

For this reason, the Head of State decided to include his treatment in the extraordinary sessions he convened to try to also obtain a series of laws to declare the public emergency and thus access special powers to move in the midst of an economy in recession and in negotiations to Restructure the debt.

The debate

The senator of the Frente de Todos, Ana Almirón, who chairs the General Legislation Commission and was in charge of presenting the arguments in favor of the initiative, highlighted the need to enact the law in "a very complex moment in the country where she is at stake poverty and hunger. "

" It is a pending debt, at a complex time where the price of food has an impact on the economy of families, " said the legislator for Corrientes on behalf of the ruling party.

Senator Carlos Menen, during the debate on the gondola law. (Photo: Federico López Claro).

Since the opposition, the interchange of Cambiemos objected to the initiative by calling it "harmless" and warned that there are already "tools" such as the laws of competition and consumer defense that serve to control the price increase, but that " unfortunately they don't apply. "

Ernesto Martínez, senator of Change for Cordoba, said the law "is pure slogan and marketing" and said that the rule " is absolutely useless, " while his partner, Esteban Bullrich, said he considered " the best way" to solving the problem "is lowering taxes" such as VAT.

The debate on the law of gondolas in the Senate. (Photo: Federico López Claro).

Senator Alberto Weretilnek, from Juntos Somos Río Negro, questioned the regulations when he understood that "it will not guarantee an improvement in the price of products " since "it is a law" that stays in the middle ".

"It abounds in what we already have, but it will generate innumerable conflicts in the application, " he said in reference to the criticism of supermarkets about the difficulties of the implementation of the measure in the gondolas of supermarkets.

Senator Silvia Beatríz Elías de Pérez during the treatment of the gondola law. (Photo: Federico López Claro).

Supermarkets, for and against

The president of the Argentine Federation of Supermarkets and Self-Services (FASA), Víctor Palpacelli, said that the gondola law "will be difficult to sustain in time", while the owner of Maxiconsumo, Víctor Fera, said that the norm "is a benefit great for consumers and for small businesses "

"The spirit of the law is good, the end is good but it is very difficult to maintain it operatively or carry it forward and sustain it in time without harming any sectors," Palpacelli said before the vote in the Senate.

Meanwhile, Fera defended the initiative and predicted that "the products will fall on average between 15% and 20%."

Source: clarin

All news articles on 2020-02-28

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