BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — President Cristina Fernandez refused to ease tax hikes on agricultural exports Tuesday, facing down angry farmers embroiled in a nationwide strike that has all but halted production in one of the world’s biggest beef-exporting nations.
At least 9,000 cattle normally enter this capital’s sprawling stockyard each day for slaughter, yet not a single animal arrived this week because of the farm and ranch strike, the largest in decades.
South America’s second- largest economy — a leading exporter of soybeans, beef and wheat — is in full farmbelt rebellion over a new sliding- scale increase in export taxes. Soybean taxes are being hiked from 35 percent to 45 percent, with smaller increases on corn and other farm products.
Scattered shops began emptying of beef, milk, chicken and cooking oil Tuesday as farmworkers mounted the most serious challenge yet to Fernandez’s fledgling government.
