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PRO economist: Macri backs import controls

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PRO economist: Macri backs import controls

Economists representing three presidential candidates debate policy at a Pro-Tejer summit yesterday.
By Ignacio Portes
Herald Staff
Fundación Pensar president insists there are many economic sectors that ‘need protection’
Only months before the World Trade Organization (WTO) deadline for Argentina to change some of its restrictions on imports, the party that is often seen as most in favour of free trade — Buenos Aires City Mayor Mauricio Macri’s PRO — vowed yesterday to keep measures to protect domestic jobs from foreign competition.
In a debate between economists allied with the three main presidential candidates organized by the textile sector organization Pro-Tejer, Fundación Pensar’s president and Buenos Aires City Development Minister Francisco Cabrera said “there are many sectors that are very sensitive and that need protection. We will have to create new protection mechanisms after the new year to protect Argentine jobs. We have to comply with WTO’s rulings but we need to create non-automatic licences for imports and additional measures on top of tariffs to ensure that takes place.”
Cabrera, who leads PRO’s “technical teams”, spoke after a presentation from the business group demanding more protection for the sector.
Representing Victory Front (FPV) candidate Daniel Scioli and A New Alternative (UNA) contender Segio Massa, Silvina Batakis and Marco Lavagna, respectively, also spoke in favour of protecting local jobs.
“Doesn’t the PRO party favour open borders?” moderator Marcelo Zlotogwiazda asked. Cabrera did not hesitate. “I don’t know where that idea comes from. Macri is an industrialist, he never favoured open borders, on the contrary.”
It was not the first time when a defence of state intervention coming from the PRO caused surprise. When the party narrowly retained its home district of Buenos Aires City in July after a tighter-than-expected victory over Martín Lousteau, Macri’s words about maintaining YPF, Aerolíneas Argentinas and pension funds were seen by many as a shift in his speech.
The party also faced trouble in Tierra del Fuego, where its allies were questioned by the FpV for PRO’s national opposition to laws hiking taxes on technology imports to favour production in the province.
As the elections approach, however, PRO’s representatives are coming out more frequently to voice their support for a strong state presence in the economy, while still favouring some free-market moves such as freeing up the country’s exchange rate from the first day of a potential Macri presidency.
The textile sector currently has a trade deficit of US$1.4 billion dollars due to excessive imports, according to Pro-Tejer. The group’s executive director Ariel Schale said “contraband” and judges who turn a blind eye to it are responsible for a significant part of those figures.
Lower taxes
Pro-Tejer’s leaders also lobbied for lower taxes, a point in which there were more evident differences between the candidates.
While both Lavagna and Cabre-ra agreed fiscal pressure was too high and vowed to decrease it, Batakis said no new taxes were needed and reform was important, but argued opposition promises were ignoring the negative effect that reduced tax collection would have on provincial finances, which depend significantly on state revenue.
PRO and UNA’s representatives agreed that a devaluation of the peso was needed (although Cabre-ra said this should come in one day, Lavagna called for a 90-day plan), with Lavagna saying he saw the dollar at 12 pesos if Massa is elected president, while Batakis preferred not to make predictions, saying she is “not an astrologer.”
Uncomfortable topics
When the issue came to working conditions and slave-like labour in the sector, Lavagna laid the blame directly on the state, tacitly taking aim at the governments of Massa’s two competitors for the presidential race.
“It’s true, there’s a lot of under-the-table work, there are clandestine workshops and even cases of slavery,” Cabrera said, betting on the creation of a new textile hub to put an end to the issue.
Batakis and Lavagna, meanwhile, said that Argentina cannot compete with Asian countries that “export a slavery model” with very low salaries by simply slashing local wages.

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