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Argentine provinces break ranks over farm strike
Financial Times
May 13, 2008

By Jude Webber in Buenos Aires

Published: May 13 2008 22:48 | Last updated: May 13 2008 22:48

Provincial governors from Argentina's ruling Peronist party have begun breaking ranks with the government over the country's farm strike, threatening cracks in the coalition that has ruled the country since the end of its 2001 economic crisis.

Argentina introduced a regime of sliding-scale export tariffs two months ago. The move, which farmers say in effect sets a maximum price for their produce, sparked a revolt by farmers whose exports have been the motor of Argentina's return to prosperity.

Argentina is the world's third biggest soyabean exporter, the top exporter of soya oil and the third biggest exporter of wheat.

"The national government has to put the issue that detonated all this on the table and it has to change the export tariffs," said Juan Schiaretti, the Peronist governor of the heavily agricultural northern province of Cordoba, on Tuesday, following a meeting with farmers on Monday.

Sergio Urribarri, governor of the neighbouring Santa Fe province, said he stuck by his support for the government but asked for special treatment for his local farmers.

Peronist senator Carlos Reutemann visited farmers' roadside protests in Santa Fe at the weekend to call for a government change of tack.

Felipe Noguera, a political consultant advising the Sociedad Rural, one of Argentina's main farm bodies, said "a lot of people are seeing maybe the end of the [government's] model".

"This would have been unthinkable three or four months ago," echoed political analyst Carlos Germano. "I think the longer the conflict goes on, the more the government has to lose."

Farmers staged a 21-day strike in April over the export tariff regime, triggering the biggest political crisis in the five years since President Cristina Fernandez's husband and mentor, Nestor Kirchner, took power and introduced the statist, growth-oriented economic model which she has inherited. Negotiations to resolve the tariff row collapsed last month.