BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — An Argentine Senate vote rejecting divisive export taxes Thursday may boost grain supply and put more food on the world’s tables.
President Cristina Fernandez increased taxes by decree in March and in June submitted the package to Congress. But on Thursday, Fernandez’s own vice president cast a decisive tie-breaking vote against what she has called an attempt to spread Argentina’s farm wealth among its 10 million poor.
Argentina, one of the world’s top four exporters of soybeans, corn, wheat and beef, should have ridden recent global food prices to record prosperity. Instead, protests over the export- tax increase disrupted the flow of goods as farmers went on strike, stockpiling commodities.
Should the taxes be repealed, exports will once again be competitive and stream out of Argentina and onto world markets, where supplies have been tight.
