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Argentine Farmers Renew Protest Ahead of Congress Vote on Taxes
Bloomberg
July 09, 2008

By Matthew Craze

Argentine farmers renewed protests over government taxes on grain exports ahead of a congressional vote on a new variable export-tax rate, which they say will put the nation's agricultural industry out of business.

Farmers will line the highways as they have done over the past four months until the Senate votes July 15, farm group leader Eduardo Buzzi said in a televised briefing today. The farmers, who produce a fifth of the world's soybeans, will march July 15 to Buenos Aires, hours before the votes.

``We will be back on the roadsides again as we have done for so much time,'' Buzzi said. ``We have to show that what is at stake here is the entire future of the provinces.''

The new taxes, which levy soybeans and sunflower seeds at more than 40 percent, were introduced in March by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who has the authority to enact policy without approval from Congress.

Last month, she said she would allow Congress to decide on the taxes, prompting Argentina's farmers to scrap their blockades on June 17 and allowing trucks with food to pass.

Argentina was the world's second-largest corn and the third- largest in soybeans last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.