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Argentine Lawmakers Give 1st OK To Controversial Export Tax Hike

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The New York Times

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 6, 2008

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - After a marathon session that lasted through the night, Argentina's lower house of Congress on Saturday narrowly approved agricultural export tax increases that the government imposed four months ago.

Legislators debated the politically charged measure for more than 15 hours, before approving, by 129-122, the export tax system created by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. The 129 votes were just one more than the minimum the government needed for approval.

The debate over the taxes, which caused farmers to rebel against the government, setting up blockades on major highways and cutting off exports of grains, now moves to the Senate for consideration, which could begin as soon as next week.
Farm leaders indicated after the vote that more protests were imminent.

The vote "did not touch any of the problems that the countryside has," said Ricardo Buryaile, vice president of the Argentine Rural Confederations. After 120 days of conflict, "the essence of our complaints were not dealt with," he said.

Under the system that Kirchner put in place on March 11, export taxes for agricultural products from Argentina were changed from a fixed rate of 35 percent to a system in which taxes are tied to global commodity prices. With record prices for grains in recent months, export taxes on soybeans, for example, have increased to more than 44 percent.

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