On Sunday, idly flicking through a copy of the Economist on a long train journey, I was mildly amused to find that the magazine had devoted one of its five leaders to Argentina’s food taxes—hardly the most pressing of topics, I thought.
Yet it’s been pressing enough to force Argentina’s newish president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, to cancel a scheduled visit to London for the snappily titled Progressive Governance conference, taking place tomorrow. (She was also due to speak at the LSE this evening.) A rise in tax on soya has led to a national farmers’ strike, involving mass demonstrations and road blockades—and to Kirchner’s biggest crisis since taking office late last year.
Cristina Kirchner has blazed a trail Hillary Clinton hopes to follow—succeeding her husband as national president. Yet, says William Gill in a web exclusive for Prospect, there is little sign so far that Cristina aimed for office for any reason other than to satisfy her extraordinary ambition. Do let us know what you think below.
It’s not a tax on soya, it’s a tax on soya exports.
From Gill’s article..
“She was forced to cancel her trip owing to a national strike by Argentinian farmers, who are outraged by a series of new taxes.”
There were no new taxes. The problem was caused by an increase in the tax rate on soya exports.
“The experience has not been successful.”
Judged against what? Another country? Another period in Argentine history like the genocidal military rule that preceded the return to democracy in 1983?
“The country has for all intents and purposes become a one-party state, with the inevitable financial corruption and authoritarianism.”
This is an absurd exaggeration.
“only because none of the bigger figures in the Peronist party wanted the job, which was seen as a political tombstone.”
so why did Rodriguez Saá and Menem run? Menem got more votes than Néstor Kirchner in the first round of voting. The idea of a senior Peronist who doesn’t want to be President is a contradiction in terms. And by the time NK got elected the economy was already growing strongly again and he kept the same Finance Minister who had been there for the last six months of Duhalde’s term
The article is pants and I can’t be bothered dissecting the rest of it.
and in case anyone thinks the comments above are motivated by sympathy for the kirchners….
http://tinyurl.com/33zxta
http://www.buenosairesherald.com/argentina/note.jsp?idContent=482224
I forwarded the article to a friend who is a keen fan of Argentina :
” Thanks…it is exactly what is happening. There has been a strike in Argentina by Farmers in the last 3 weeks and road blocked chaos. They have even had to cancel some polo tournaments because of not allowing livestock to travel. ”
Polo is to the Argentine what football is to the UK. Argentinians are ‘naturals’, having learnt to play out on the pampass from as young as three years old, while riding the farm ‘cutting horses’
( bred to stop, start and turn on a sixpence in order to round up cattle on the vast estancias )
If the polo is at stake, Kirchner Inc had better raise their game