MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei promises rural producers that things will get better

“The economic program has times and conditions, we have to look at the movie and not just the photo,” Milei argued

In his appearance Sunday at the Argentine Rural Society Annual Exhibition's main ceremony in Buenos Aires, President Javier Milei promised to remove all export taxes in due time, for which he asked producers to be patient.

“The national economic debacle began when politicians turned their backs on” rural activity, Milei claimed while expressing his “admiration to the producers who every day go out to produce food for 500 million human beings.” These workers “deserve to be called heroes,” he argued.

Sunday's ceremony also featured a face-to-face between Milei and Vice President Victoria Villarruel, with whom he has been reported to have no dialogue after her posting on social media defending international footballer Enzo Fernández's controversial video featuring racist and homophobic remarks against his French national team colleagues. Milei and Villarruel greeted each other and that was it.

The most dissenting note Sunday was Buenos Aires Mayor Jorge Macri ostensibly kissing his wife, former TV news anchorwoman María Belén Ludueña during Milei's speech.

Also present at the event were Presidential Secretary Karina Milei; Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos, and Ministers Mariano Cúneo Libarona (Justice), Federico Sturzenegger (Deregulation and Transformation of the State), Diana Mondino (Foreign Affairs), and Patricia Bullrich (Security).

during his speech, Milei ratified his “commitment” to eliminate withholdings to the agricultural sector and reiterated that, when inflation is stabilized, it will be possible to “lift the trap” on the dollar.

“Nobody is so eager, particularly me, to get out of the scheme that, between export taxes and caps, expropriates 70% percent of countryside production,” Milei stressed.

“We do not care about the pressure or where it comes from, we will respect the time. The economic program has times and conditions, we have to look at the movie and not just the photo,” he elaborated as he urged producers to support “the changes” undertaken by the Libertarian administration.

Milei also pledged that the so-called PAIS tax would be lowered to 7.5% in September and eliminated in December.“ It consists of a surcharge applied to foreign currency exchange operations to level the official quotation with the so-called ”blue“ (or ”black market”) US dollar. However, analysts in Buenos Aires underlined that such an announcement was far from being a Milei promise since these steps are already provided for in the law creating the PAIS tax.

“Mr. President, we producers need the certainty that you are going to remove export taxes. If we continue working it is because we trust in your word because what export taxes withholdings produce is discouragement and the disappearance of the agricultural producer,” SRA President Nicolás Pino said in his message.