Opposition deputies presented a bill to repeal the Supply Law

At the time of President Alberto Fernández announcing a package of economic measures, within the framework of the “war against inflation” that - according to the president himself - begins this Friday, a group of deputies from Together for Change and the Liberals presented a bill to repeal the Supply Law, which has been used as a threat by Kirchnerism at times of price spikes.

“This law emerges as a permanent and latent threat to the natural development of trade and production, causing the opposite effect that is supposedly sought. Intimidating producers and traders is clearly a hindrance to the dictatorial past of the Middle Ages and those modern leaders who are more attached to the whip than to reason,” the opposition argued in the text presented on Thursday.

For the signing legislators, the Supply Law has been used as a “threat” by those officials who “do not know or understand how inflation is defeated in Argentina.” Beyond the latest warnings made by Roberto Feletti, the opposition critic points to “all the Secretaries of Commerce in their alleged fight against inflation.”

“As is well known, price controls and threats against the private sector accumulate dismal failures and unnecessary unrest among the population. Proof of the government's failure to lower inflation can be seen in the statements of the President of the Nation himself, who unfortunately calls us to a 'war' against this monetary infection that only exists in Argentina and in a handful of countries undergoing civil wars or humanitarian crises,” the repeal bill added.

On the other hand, they also questioned article 27 of the legislation that allows the enforcement authority “to compel the sale, production, distribution or supply of services 'in the face of a situation of shortage or shortage' of goods and services achieved” by the aforementioned legislation.

“These are forms of indirect expropriation,” they said, since “they deprive the owner of the factors of production of his decision on how to use them for the production of other goods.” “Ownership over them is thus reduced to purely nominal ownership and the right to receive their returns: the right to use and dispose of property is eliminated, in other words, an expropriation without transfer of ownership of the property,” they indicated. They also warned that “the norm does not provide for an assumption of compensation for the impairment of the right to property of our article 17 of the Argentine Constitution”.

“This is not a problem of monopolistic producers or traders, since inflation in Argentina is not a problem of relative price increases but of general and massive price increases, in relation to the unit of account, determined solely by the decrease in the value of the currency to the detriment of the entire economy”, they argued.

This week the Minister of Agriculture, Julián Domínguez, met with leaders of the Consortium of Argentine Meat Exporters (ABC) following the refusal of businessmen to continue supplying supermarkets to maintain “Cuidado Cuidados”, a list of popular cuts of meat at agreed prices. “Those who do not comply with the commitments made to Argentines will not be able to continue exporting meat,” the official said.

For its part, the decision of the exporters had described the decision of the exporters as “unilateral, untimely and unreasonable” and that “implies engaging in the conduct provided for in article 4 of the Supply Act, having a serious impact on the normal supply of the cuts of meat referred to in the outlets of minority mass consumption”.

Finally, the beef exporters who are part of the Consortium of Exporters decided to back down with the decision they had taken.

For the opposition legislators who presented the draft repeal, “the application of this (Supply) law would only lead to a decrease in products whose prices are intended to be imposed by force, and as a result price increases could reach levels even higher than inflation, especially if proceeds to closures such as those stipulated in the rule, the direct effect of which is the reduction of supply and therefore the increase in prices”.

“The supply law is an oxymoron that seeks to supply products, but all it achieves is a widespread shortage,” they concluded in the text entered in the Lower House.

The initiative was presented by the deputies of Juntos for Change, Martín Tetaz and Luciano Laspina. She was accompanied by her fellow blockers: Silvia Lospennato, Lisandro Nieri, Pamela Verasay, Alejandro Cacace, Rodrigo de Loredo, Danya Tavela, Marcelo Antola and Martín Berhongaray; and Ricardo López Murphy (United Republicans) and the two members of La Libertad Avanza, Javier Milei and Victoria Villaruel, also contributed their signature.

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