Current Events: Government vs Producers Continued

At this very moment, proposals on what to do about the export tariffs as well as a couple of additional laws are being presented before Congress in a special session which began yesterday afternoon after negotiations with the main organizations representing the producers failed to produce consensus. The presentation in Congress continued on this morning and will end in a vote. Although the producers, with the support of some opposition parties (the UCR –the radicals-, the CC –the Civic Coalition-, PRO –the party backing Buenos Aires’ conservative mayor-- and some members of the socialist party), had requested a 150 day delay on the proceedings, the debate still went ahead. At the moment, it is only speculation whether the government will have enough votes to get the resolution passed. Special exceptions for small and medium producers have been added to the text of the original proposal and some minor concessions have been made. In total, something like seven alternative proposals were presented by different parties and interest groups. But the government is hoping for enough support to get it’s own proposal passed.

Mario Llambías, the president of one of the four organizations that represent the producers, the CRA (Confederación Rural Argentina), although he had originally supported taking the debate to Congress, has recently declared that if the proposal is passes, he will consider it unconstitutional. Meanwhile, among the other three organizations, the once united front is showing internal divisions.

What remains to be seen is how the vote goes, whether the resolution is passed and, if so, whether the producers will respect the decision of Congress.

Update: After a session that lasted 19 hours, the government's proposal was passed. The vote was close as expected. 129 in favour, 122 votes against and 2 abstained from voting altogether. The proposal has to go before the Senate now. Producers still oppose the bill despite the fact that the government has made several concessions in their favour.