02/08/2021 13:28
Clarín.com
Rural
Updated 02/08/2021 14:04
The Liaison Board will ask for a hearing with Alberto Fernández in the next few hours, who in the last hours warned about a possible new increase in withholdings in the field.
It was decided by the presidents of the
Argentine Rural Society
(SRA), Daniel Pelegrina;
of
Argentine Rural Confederations
(CRA), Jorge Chemes, and of the
Argentine Agrarian Federation
, Carlos Achetoni (FAA) in a meeting they held this Monday before noon.
"The Liaison Commission of Agricultural Entities expresses its most absolute consternation at the statements of the President of the Nation, Alberto Fernández, in which he
accuses all Argentine producers and the countryside in general of being responsible for the increase in prices
and It threatens to implement an increase in withholdings or export quotas, two devastating measures for production, "they said in a statement on Monday.
The brief also questions the head of state for
"publicly threatening" them
with increased retentions, "based on an accusation without any basis, humiliating them, once again, with an attitude that is not consistent with his inauguration or with the due measure and impartiality that the highest authority of the Nation must exhibit ".
On Sunday, the President said in a report with Página 12 that the State "only has two channels to solve the problem" of food prices.
Referring to the increases in meat, and although he said that they are tools that "he would prefer not to use," he warned that he could "raise withholdings, which are currently limited, or put quotas: say 'this is not exported."
Raise withholdings or put export quotas, the warning of President Alberto Fernández to the field.
Photo DPA.
The reaction of the agrarian entities and the opposition did not wait, who agreed to minimize that the producers have no interference in "the prices they have in the gondola" and that the producers are not "price makers".
Currently soy exports are taxed at 33% and to increase them requires the vote of Congress.
Wheat and corn pay 12% and could go up to 15% by decree.
In December 2019, Congress approved the Law of Social Solidarity and Productive Reactivation, an instrument that allows you to increase withholdings.
Retentions: a devastating measure for production pic.twitter.com/UGnmVVYthm
- Rural Society (@SociedadRural) February 8, 2021
"Producers are not price makers," they
say from the Agricultural Entities Liaison Commission.
And they insist that the composition of the final price is "the costs from other links in the chain and, above all, from the State, through taxes and duties."
Finally, they criticize the position of tying the producers in the name of "the table of the Argentines", which they point out that it is "dangerous, since it tries to create a false dichotomy and a crack where there is none".
"The vast majority of Argentines value the activity of producers and the fact that even in the midst of a pandemic they continued to produce and work, risking their health and that of their families. While other governments highlight the role of their producers, ours is beating us and confronts the rest of the citizenry, "concludes the statement, which makes all entities available to meet with the president.
AFG
