MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
EU bio-diesel tariffs and China’s policy change threaten Argentina’s soy-oil industry
The export price of Argentine soy-oil has plummeted 21% so far this year, due to new European bio-diesel tariffs and China’s change of policy, putting one of the country's key industries at risk. Argentina is the world's top exporter of soy-oil, which is used to make bio-diesel. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rules“When the new duties were imposed in May of this year, Argentina denounced them as a “protectionist” response to Europe's own inefficiency.”
Jul 12th, 2013 - 08:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Well aint that the pot calling the kettle black
What a bunch of hypoctits, they better get use to the phrase....“tit for tat”
Jul 12th, 2013 - 10:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0EU is making up the shortfall with Brazil. So they're not being protectionist.
Jul 12th, 2013 - 11:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Gee you think it is really Argentina's fault? Nah can't be.
So if nobody is buying the soy oil what now? Just export the grain? That's not even profitable any longer with huge taxes and inflation.
My oh my what a mess these silly Marxists have created.
I think is it a virtual certainty that Europe and the USA were hypocrites well before Argentina ever was. EU and USA just don't like it when others turn around and play their own tricks on them.
Jul 13th, 2013 - 12:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0A country of 320 million and a market of 700 million engaging in such measures is indeed crassly protectionist. Argentina is only a minor economy in the world and like 40th in population, so it is not being protectionist. Simple as that really. So Argentina is right here.
Well Yankee.....is this not part of their plan based on, mmmmmmm, what did they call it......heterodox economics. Do they think the world is going to play they game where the rules are always changing? Reminds my of the contrarian investors, when you swim into a rip tide only one thing happens.
Jul 13th, 2013 - 12:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0Christ.....look at them.......no wheat, no flour, no bread, no heating oil, no tomatos, strike after strike......first teachers, then the national guard, then farmers, then teachers again, the bus drivers, then farmers again, then truck drivers....now...dock workers and no money to pay them..... and no damned sympathy. Communism failed but these southies think they can do what the USSR and China could not. They should remember they hate us........so DO NOT FUCKING BEG TO TRADE WITH US!!!
Our progeny in the future is roflmaoing at the idea someone had of growing food to put it inside a combustion engine.
Jul 13th, 2013 - 06:16 am - Link - Report abuse 0“Argentina is only a minor economy in the world”
Jul 13th, 2013 - 07:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0Nostrils hit the nail on the head.
A Chilean, a Paraguayan and an Argentinian attend a funeral.
Jul 13th, 2013 - 07:57 am - Link - Report abuse 0Standing over the open grave the Chilean says, I owed him twenty dollars and drops a twenty dollar note onto the coffin.
The Paraguayan says, I owed him twenty dollars and drops a twenty dollar note onto the coffin.
The Argentinian says, I owed him twenty dollars, wrote a cheque out for sixty dollars, dropped it on the coffin and took the forty dollars cash back for change!
4. How can you still believe this false narrative when the USA imports U$2T a year? How is that being protectionist?
Jul 13th, 2013 - 10:07 am - Link - Report abuse 0We import citrus and beef from Uruguay but not POISONED beef and lemons from Argentina. What's the key word there POISONED. Maybe if you stopped trying to sell us POISONED stuff we would accept it.
The world has grown tired of Argentina playing the victim, double dealing and continued disregard for the rule of law.
The next generation will pay for the K decade. My guess is you'll be looking to Paraguay to escape to and find a decent job and living.
I refuse to buy anything produced in Argentina.
Jul 13th, 2013 - 10:15 am - Link - Report abuse 0Toby, Remember me telling you the WIne industry would start failing?
Jul 13th, 2013 - 10:24 am - Link - Report abuse 0And you pissed and moaned and called me every name you could think of...
Well...will you admit I was right...again..and again and again???
But the hyper-inflation over the past three years has meant it now costs three times as much to make wine there as it did in 2010. Things are getting more complicated all the time, so I am shifting my South American base to the Limari Valley in Chile, which is politically more stable.’
Under President Cristina Kirchner, Argentina has been experimenting with currency controls, and export controls.
‘The state-imposed exchange rates are not favourable to those working in foreign currencies, and the past year has seen large strikes across the country, with petrol shortages, sugar and salt shortages, and transport costs across the interior of the country balloon,’ says Wallard, who did not own his vineyard in Argentina, but worked as a negociant. ‘Of course the global economy is not helping, but the main issues are internal.’
Read more at http://www.decanter.com/news/wine-news/584149/political-instability-affecting-french-winemakers-in-argentina#tBqWqiFE8T70ZMBp.99
Of course it is the prerogative of the Argentine government to slap any tax they wish on their exports of soy-oil. However, it is likewise the prerogative of other nations and industry to source soy-oil where it is cheaper . It is also the prerogative of nations to take defensive measures where they think that another government is exploiting the market. In short the Argentine may be pricing itself out of the market
Jul 13th, 2013 - 10:32 am - Link - Report abuse 0@4 “Argentina is only a minor economy in the world and like 40th in population, so it is not being protectionist.”
Jul 13th, 2013 - 10:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0So you can be realistic! Let's put it another way. You're a pipsqueak little place and you don't have any discernible weight to throw around. So quit trying. You know what happens to annoying little bugs, don't you? Sooner or later, someone swats them. Then they are flattened, squashed bugs!
Argentina are so desperate that they believe trading with China means they don't have to deal with nasty USA or Europe.
Jul 13th, 2013 - 12:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0But China now processing soy beans into biodiesel will create value (for China, not Argentina) meaning they won't need the biodiesel, just the raw beans-less of a mark up amigos!
I love the way Argentina justify protectionist measures (because its Argentina) then wail and cry when someone else (EU et al)imposes them.
This mirrors Argentina's car crash diplomacy.
Pssssttt FIG -ask to borrow money from Argentina for a biodiesel plant-bite your tongue and call it the Malouines plant as a sop, grant Argentina shared sovereignty over the plant toilets and cesspit, offering to use toilet paper made out of mini RG flags,then as Argentina fails to sell its beans, buy them at a discount rate, sell the biodiesel (for as much as the market will stand)and then default on the loan claiming that you want to achieve integration with your South America brothers by using tried and tested 'Argentine' methods of business.
When the Argies try to get the money back, arrange for the UK to hold a major naval exercise, and fly in a squadron of Typhoons and Tornado GR4s.
TTT
Jul 13th, 2013 - 12:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Why does it matter to you what other nations do, whether they trade with The Dark Country or not.
YOU were the one claiming that argies don't NEED to trade with anyone, so why moan when you get your deseos come true?
Excuse me, but if I'm a mouse and you are a bear, and a cat comes, and both take the exact same action, “run away”, would anyone really state that both the mouse and the bear's response was commensurate?? Of course not, everyone would the bear is an utter coward.
Jul 13th, 2013 - 01:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Same here. Just because Argentina protects its economy and the USA and Europe take the same measures, does not mean they are equal. As Anglotino and Conqueror gleefuly said, Australia and the UK are superpower economies in the world, Argentina is nothing. So them taking these actions is beyond pathetic because they have the scale to sustain imports. Argentina does not.
The EU and the USA doing it is even more pusillanimous and farcical.
That's why Argentina taking these actions does not equal protectionism, but your countries doing so IS protectionism. Your economies matter, Argentina's does not.
That's a very lame analogy. Are you playing Jesus now and speaking in allegories? Funny how only Argentina makes that claim. How many claims have argentina won in the WTO? Yes, of course we know, the WTO is rigged. You seem to think that because of their size, the EU and USA should not punish argentina for their actions. Parents are a lot bigger than their children, but guess what, they still punish their children for bad behavior. Rather than having the US and EU have to teach argentina lessons, why not stop trading with us and your find continually states you do not need the EU and USA?
Jul 13th, 2013 - 01:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Speaking of bad analogies compare mine to yours. Parents to children... I would like to see where in international law is it written: “The European Union an the United States have been granted ”Patria potestad“ over Argieland”. Please show it to me.
Jul 13th, 2013 - 01:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You can't, which makes their actions those of cowards, or at the very least protectionist. Argentina engages in no protectionism since it is harming no one.
TTT surely if our economies count and your don't then we should allow ours to prosper and yours to flush down the toilet. Besides neither the USA or EU is being protectionist in the cases you point out. It is still importing the products, just not from Argentina because they can't be trusted.
Jul 13th, 2013 - 01:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@19
Jul 13th, 2013 - 02:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Haven't you tried to do this for ages now? Argentina behaves the way it does with you today because you never in the decades before CFK displayed friendliness and honesty with us. No action or attitude occurs entirely in a vacuum.
That is not the definition of protectionism.
”Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, which can be (in a court) be proven to cause financial loss to a party“.
EU and USA are putting tariffs, and every poster here says because their countries are so mighty, that they will ”teach Argentina” a lesson. That would strongly hint that there will be financial loss to a party (Argentina).
All qualifications for protectionism being met, you countries are engaging in Protectionism.
Argentina is not because it does not meet the last criterion, that of financial loss. Your countries are too strong, large, prosperous, and mighty to be harmed by our measures. So Argentina is not being protectionist.
If I stand in front of you and use my fist to hit you, that is assault legally. If I stand in front of you and use my fist to hit you, but do it in extra slow motion, that is not assault legally?
Why? You have to have the result of bodily harm. Hitting you with my fist at 100 microns per second can do no damage to you.
@9 “We import citrus and beef from Uruguay but not POISONED beef and lemons from Argentina. What's the key word there POISONED. Maybe if you stopped trying to sell us POISONED stuff we would accept it.”
Jul 13th, 2013 - 02:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0What do you mean by poisoned?
He means 'free of mad cow disease, growth hormone, free from being fed toxic fodder made with animal remains, no pink goo, and antibiotic free”.
Jul 13th, 2013 - 03:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0His American meat has all of the above, so I can understand why argie beef to him must make him sick. Processing clean natural food by such a poisoned body (like those of all americans), ,must mess up terribly the homeostasis of toxins in the cells.
Our industries would flourish if we weren't taxed for every step of production. China processing the raw materials themselves is an economically sound practice.
Jul 13th, 2013 - 03:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Many companies here try to reduce the tax burden by producing low cost/substandard products. Light bulbs, for instance, explode; and plugs melt. Foreign goods used to be a good alternative.
Some idiots would rather have a high tax burden, and prevent their own people from getting access to necessary high quality goods.
It's like your asshole tobi, you're allowed an opinion. Why do you not give up trying to trade with us? You said you do not need us and do not like our rules?
Jul 13th, 2013 - 03:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Id EU and USA had ”Patria potestad“ over rgland you would have been given up for adoption. Just a second......I need to slice a beefsteak tomato for my salad bread.........
Back.....now where were we......oh yes..........why do you want to trade with us? So am I to understand correctly that because you are small and insignificant you are allowed protectionist policies but the US and EU are too big to tax and tariff imports?
I have to say tobi.....I've been to your country many times and you have yet to step beyond the walls of mendoza. You should really get some worldly experience. Playing fight simulators does not make you a pilot, nor reading about the world on the internet make you knowledgeable of peoples and countries of the world. You shouldn't waste your intelligence on nationalism. Go into politics and do something good for you country and clean up the pervasive corruption and maybe the world will take Argentina serious.
21 MagnusMaster
Jul 13th, 2013 - 03:44 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The lemons presented to the USA were found to have unacceptable levels of toxins and were rightly rejected.
Your beef is no longer grass fed but raised in feedlots (as some American beef is but is sold at low price). Your cattle also have high levels of anti-biotics in them which is also unacceptable.
It is beyond belief that Argentina has fallen so far in the international meat trade from where it used to be, but that is where you are now.
Don't you wish the British were back - oh sorry, the peronista lies still befuddle the indoctrinated I see.
@24
Jul 13th, 2013 - 04:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Yes you understood correctly. When Argentina applied its measures it was intended to protect its tiny economy from being destroyed by just some minor EU and US companies exporting too much to us.
The measures you took after are certainly RETALIATORY and intended to harm and thus clearly protectionism.
@25 “Don't you wish the British were back - oh sorry, the peronista lies still befuddle the indoctrinated I see.”
Jul 13th, 2013 - 05:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Sorry, I don't wish the British were back, though you are welcome to visit. You think I'm OK with you patronizing me? You didn't need any help to conquer the world so you think you are superior to everyone else, that we are dogs for you to train? Even if we are “civilized” we would still be barbarians, just like a trained dog is still a dog. But it's not worth pointing out to you that I, like the other people in my country are still human just like you, when it's natural for the powerful to laugh at the weak. If you can solve our problems, then we should solve them, or we would be nothing more than animals.
I'm not an animal, and I'll going to prove it. But for me to prove it, we have to prove it, because an individual is a product of a civilization, so a person can only be a person when the civilization is, at the very least, decent. Unfortunately the Peronists don't think they have to prove anything at anyone, they don't care if they are laughed at by the rest of the world.
Sue is tobi. Other countries have taken us to the WTO and won against us. We lose when in the wrong. However I do not agree in discriminatory trade practices because you are small. Though we do give trade preferences to countries that deserves it and by Argentina's practices in general, they deserves all that is happening to them.
Jul 13th, 2013 - 07:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 027 MagnusMaster
Jul 13th, 2013 - 09:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0OK, where to start?
Britain does not renege on debts (forget the 1936 thing that was agreed by all the countries), does not renege on its friends, its Ministers do not systemically operate graft on the economy, it takes in millions of immigrants (though not without integration problems) and looks after their wellbeing FOC, etc, etc.
We DO laugh at the antics of TMBOA and her idiot government and I for one detest the Malvanistas AND the Peronistas, but NOT the citizens who are not in these groups such as Simon68, etc. and my Argentine friends in Uruguay.
So the answer lies in the hands of the young people if they can overcome the lies and indoctrination operated by all governments since Peron and see the truth for themselves. Do you think this is at all possible?
@29 ”Britain does not renege on debts (forget the 1936 thing that was agreed by all the countries), does not renege on its friends, its Ministers do not systemically operate graft on the economy, it takes in millions of immigrants (though not without integration problems) and looks after their wellbeing FOC, etc, etc.“
Jul 14th, 2013 - 12:20 am - Link - Report abuse 0Yes, but as far as I know you don't have a political party with such a tight control over people as the Peronists.
”We DO laugh at the antics of TMBOA and her idiot government and I for one detest the Malvanistas AND the Peronistas, but NOT the citizens who are not in these groups such as Simon68, etc. and my Argentine friends in Uruguay.“
Maybe not you personally... but I've seen plenty of people laugh at everyone in my country, or calling us idiots, etc. Sorry.
”So the answer lies in the hands of the young people if they can overcome the lies and indoctrination operated by all governments since Peron and see the truth for themselves. Do you think this is at all possible?“
If you are talking about the islands, I don't think it's possible, at least for a long time. You see, to call the islands ”Falklands” in Argentina is like being a woman and driving a car naked in Saudi Arabia. To accept the truth would be like uttering the greatest insult known to man to yourself, your family and your country in every language known to man. At least we aren't really distracted by that anymore.
And La Campora will cease to exist after CFK leaves. Is there any indoctrination I'm not aware of?
I don't think the problem is indoctrination. The problem is that the Peronists control the government workers, the media, the trade unions and the hooligans, plus they get allied with all the mafias, so united they can shut down the country, as they did to Alfonsin when he threatened to weaken trade unions. We only vote to solve power struggles. If they didn't backstab each other we would already be like North Korea.
@ 4 The Truth PaTroll
Jul 14th, 2013 - 02:31 am - Link - Report abuse 0No, Argentina is not right here.
Argentina increased the export tax on Soy Oil, the raw material Bio Diesel is refined from. Making Bio Diesel from Argentina cheaper than the Oil it is made from.
Placing European refiners at something of a disadvantage.
This tariff simply restores balance to a market Argentina has tried to distort to its own advantage.
This cannot be described as “protectionism”, it is simply prudent.
Argentina must play by the same rules as everybody else, if it wishes to play at all.
China it seems has come to the same conclusion, different response though, next they will be growing the soya bean themselves, although probably in Africa.
@ 27 MagnusMaster
Apart from a couple of raids against the Bonapartistas, the British were never really there.
“You didn't need any help to conquer the world so you think you are superior to everyone else, that we are dogs for you to train”.
“just like a trained dog is still a dog”
And you accuse others of being patronising!!!
Whether Argentina is prepared to, or even able to, except the existence of the Falklands is not really relevant as they exist anyway.
The rest seem pretty much Argentinian issues upon which I would offer no opinion.
“ And you accuse others of being patronising!!!”
Jul 14th, 2013 - 03:17 am - Link - Report abuse 0Sorry, I may have got a bit carried away.
I see comments re beef from the Argentine. It was, indeed, very acceptable in the UK, but nowadays you never hear about it . What went wrong ?
Jul 14th, 2013 - 10:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0@33 Argentina doesn't produce much meat even since the government intervened in an attempt to keep the price of meat low.
Jul 14th, 2013 - 04:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Magnus Master. Oh dear what a terrible shame . The Argentine was a major world producer of beef too. Oh well at least governments can be voted out, eventually
Jul 14th, 2013 - 07:44 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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