MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Brazil farmers criticize law establishing minimum truck freight rates
The new law requires truck freight prices to be equal to, or above, minimum prices set by Brazil’s national transport agency ANTT Brazil’s President Michel Temer signed into law a bill authorizing the government to set minimum truck freight prices, drawing criticism from farm groups who said the measures would drive up costs for food.
According to a decision published in the official gazette on Thursday, Temer only vetoed one provision that would have pardoned truckers from paying fines for their role in staging an 11-day strike in May. The stoppage crippled Brazil’s roads, hampering deliveries of everything from fuel to grains.
The new law requires truck freight prices to be equal to, or above, minimum prices set by Brazil’s national transport agency ANTT. Minimum prices will be published twice a year, by Jan. 20 and July 20.
In a statement on Thursday, oilseeds crushers association Abiove - whose members include big grain handlers like Cargill Inc, Archer Daniels Midland, Louis Dreyfus Corp and Bunge, called the law “backward” for reinstating policies that Brazil had relinquished in the 1990s.
Brazil’s powerful farm lobby group, CNA, said in a statement following the president’s signature that it had filed a new petition at the Supreme Court to challenge the constitutionality of the law.
CNA said a recent study showed the policy would cause the price of basic foodstuffs like meat, rice, beans and eggs to increase by an average of 12%.
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Read all commentsWhy the government needs to interfere, through the ANTT, in a question that only concerns the truckers and the CNA, I don't know....they should be allowed to negotiate until they find a common denominator...but as the govt has interfered, the principle of offer and demand has been thown in to the gutter.....if there are too many truckers, and not enough cargo, the market will set the prices for freight...that's what should work in a free market, not the government establishing a minimum freight which will only increase the final cost - to the consumer - of everything transported by truck. One result of the truckers' strike, is that many large companies, not only from the agribusiness, are now buying thousands of new trucks to form (or increase) their own fleets, to not be held hostage by the independent truckers and their unions. Sounds like the truckers have shot themselves in the foot.
Aug 10th, 2018 - 04:52 pm 0RE Your reply on “Construction executives confirm bribe payments”
Aug 18th, 2018 - 10:29 am 0What I'm trying to say about dictators is that they don't care about doing the right thing or following the law, but they do care about self preservation. If following the UN helps with that, they'll do it, but otherwise, no. So it's important to keep the incentives on the side of obeying the law, but the Iraq war did the opposite.
““Besides, how do you judge capacity?”......the same way that you measure an economy's strength.....”
Now we seem to be back to saying rich countries should do more. Brazil currently has a lot of refugees from Venezuela, do you think Argentina and Chile or even the US and Canada should take some of them? And surely the federal government should be doing more to help the northern states, either by sending them money and shelters, more doctors etc, or by dispersing the refugees around the country?
“what gives you the automatic right to enter”
I think it depends where you are coming from. The UK has no obligation to let in asylum seekers from France, because France is a perfectly safe country, even if they would prefer to be in the UK. Similarly, I guess Argentina would not have to let Venezuelans in if they came through Brazil (although Brazil is not all that safe). I'm not sure if Mexico is considered a safe country, I guess not since the US does let people in. Agree about sending kids alone, seems very irresponsible and kinda manipulative of the parents, knowing the US govt will be forced to look after them.
I suppose they get a lot of applications, but the Canadian consulate could have at least told your friend why he wasn't accepted. But that's why they don't want to just legalise the people already in America, it would be unfair on those who did follow the rules and got rejected.
Re the truck drivers, it's all a mystery to me. Who set freight prices before this law was passed and why didn't they rise along with diesel prices so the truckers didn't lose out?
“What I'm trying to say about dictators....” seems we're saying much the same thing, just differently.
Aug 18th, 2018 - 08:07 pm 0“Now we seem to be back to saying rich countries should do more....”
Yes, provided they have adhered to whatever int'l treaty regulates the matter.....
If Argentina, Chile and Canada, are signatories to the int'l treaty, then yes, according to their (self-) evaluated capacity and agreed-to quotas, and provided the Venezuelans want to go to any of those specific countries, and provided those countries have the right to weed out those they don't want...In Brazil, the Fed govt has to help the northern state financially, (to cope with or to spread them around Brazil), as immigration is regulated under Federal, not State-law.
I don't think the situation (safety-wise) of where the asylum seeker is coming from should oblige the potential host country any more or any less...i.e., am not so sure that if someone chooses to seek asylum, their origin should necessarily put them in a privileged position over others...every case has its own peculiarities, but when you get hordes assaulting the borders it can become messy.
Canada is simply exerting it's right to let in whom they (might) need and/or believe will be an asset....there was probably no shortage of engineers. Know of similar cases of people trying to move to NZL.
Before the Fed Govt decided to interfere with the freight rates, the takers and suppliers negotiated prices based on offer and demand.....but it was the decision by PB, to raise the cost of diesel fuel (used by 99% of the fleet) to an unreasonable level that caused the insatisfaction....(just a quick note : it was the PT's manipulation of fuel prices - to maintain their popularity - that nearly broke PB)...truckers wanted to build it into their price and (basically) the agribusiness said 'no way'....the price of moving cargo around Brazil by truck, is more expensive, less reliable and riskier than by rail, and depending on the route, also cabotage.
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