“More withholdings is less production”, said Nicolas Pino, President of the Sociedad Rural Argentina (SRA), in response to the warning of the Secretary of Commerce, Roberto Feletti, on the possibility of implementing a increase in withholdings on meat exports, which today are taxed at 9%.
The rural leader said that “there is much anger among the ruralistas” So what “no type of measure is ruled out, of mobilization, so that the producers express ourselves strongly ”, as reflected that the top leaders of the field analyze.
“We have received countless calls from producers who are really very angry. This is not good. We hope it doesn’t happen because they have to let us work”, argued Pino, while define the steps to follow in the link table.
Feletti had said that “to ensure meat, chicken, bread and milk we have to decouple domestic prices from international ones,” in an interview with Página 12 this Sunday.
Faced with it, Pïno said that “the Government has to take note of the last election, of how the productive provinces expressed themselves. Clearly the message was: this is not the way ”. And he judged as “very reckless” the statement of the Secretary of Commerce.
The head of the SRA considered that “interventionism in the markets and price controls in food they are measures that damage the economy by limiting growth. They should not exist as a public policy tool ”.
For its part, Gabriel of Raedemaeker, vice president of the Argentine Rural Confederations (CRA), interpreted that Feletti’s statements “are truly regrettable” and stated that “what is needed is to generate the mechanisms that promote production. You don’t have to restrict production, put a ceiling on it. But it is evident that in his capacity for analysis, interventionist of the economy, there is no possibility of this type ”.
The Cordovan ruralista said that “the food problem lies in the tax pressure and uncontrolled inflation. Hopefully the Government does not repeat the same errors of known consequences “.
From Confederation of Rural Associations of Buenos Aires and La Pampa (Carbap) They also rejected any type of intervention and asked that the actors be summoned before any action is taken.
“What Feletti should take into account is that in an inflationary process, there is no product that does not increase,” argued the public accountant. Horacio Salaverri, president of Carbap. “The placement of withholdings was never a solution to the increases in price values, nor did it have any decoupling,” he said.
In relation to the trust that the Government is analyzing to build with the proceeds of the withholdings to cushion internal prices, in a similar way to that which has been implemented with edible mixed oil, Salaverri argued that “The meat is taxed 9% and collects 240 million dollars per year. It is a totally considerable fund to be able to moderate prices without touching the withholdings again ”.
