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Latinnews Daily - 09 February 2018

Argentine government hopes deal will end transport strike

Development: On 8 February, the Argentine government led by President Mauricio Macri struck a deal with agricultural producers and local truck drivers to increase haulage rates in the hope of ending protest action which has disrupted exports for 10 days now.

Significance: The deal is eye-catching because it comes shortly before a giant strike being planned by Hugo Moyano, the powerful former leader of the Sindicato de Camioneros truck drivers’ union, for 22 February. The grain transporters association, Transportistas de Granos Autoconvocados (TGA), which has organised the strikes and roadblocks to demand the adoption of mandatory minimum grain freight rates, claims to have nothing to do with Moyano, but the Macri administration is keen to end their protest before Moyano’s strike to avoid even more chaos on the roads, as well as losses to the agricultural sector.

  • The ministries of transport and agroindustry agreed a 12% increase in the reference hauling rate for the transport of grain with agricultural producers and transport companies.
  • The TGA, however, was not invited to participate in the talks with the government, and as yet it has not lifted its strike.
  • The Cámara de la Industria Aceitera de la República Argentina (Ciara) and Centro de Exportadores de Cereales (CEC), chambers representing oilseed producers and cereal exporters, argued that “all of the main agro-industrial plants and export ports have been virtually paralysed” as a result of the TGA protest action, which has spilled over into violence in some areas with trucks torched and drivers beaten.
  • In the province of Santa Fe, the country’s agricultural heartland, six roadblocks have caused significant disruption. There has been a decline of more than 50% in the number of trucks arriving at the provincial port of Rosario, which exports some 80% of the country’s agricultural products, with the loading of cargo ships halted.

Looking Ahead: The transport minister, Guillermo Dietrich, expressed confidence that the deal would end the current strikes and roadblocks, and he threatened legal action against protesters if they persisted.

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