The Wall Street Journal kicked it off with a subscription only blurb regarding the measure and La Nacion explored what I've been wondering about: how our Mercosur trading partner, Brazil, might react to the ban.
It seems that Ivan Ramalho, the Brazilian minister for economic development was passing through town and read about the ban in the local press. When he asked his Argentine counterpart about the measure, he was told "that's not my department but I'll get back to you."
Later on that day, after Argentine minister of the economy Amado Boudou got word of the Brazilian's concerns, it was up to him to respond to the ban. Boudou's defense was lukewarm. While defending current government policies that nurture domestic industries, he made reference to "naive" policies that have destroyed jobs and industry here in decades past.
In a report today, The Buenos Aires Herald scores a coup by actually obtaining a letter from the usually discrete Moreno who prefers to conduct things by telephone. The letter addressed to the Argentine equivalent of the FDA talks about how to use that agencies approval process to keep the imported foods out of the country and how the two ministers will work to develop a list of foods.
The Herald confirms the June 1st start date.
Finally comes a great blog post from The Financial Times about the hoo hah. In it, their Buenos Aires correspondent Jude Webber proffered another reason for the ban: imports in general spiked by 52% compared to last March and 33% for this year's first quarter. He says that the ban on imported food could more likely be an attempt to help that ...rather than the fear of a falling euro. Webber ends with, "For now, it looks like another incomprehensible battle Argentina could easily have avoided."
Oops! It might be OVER! The Buenos Aires Herald does it again with a report from Córdoba 40 minutes ago in which "Production Minister Débora Giorgi said that food imports demanded by the markets will be available and clarified that Argentina follows the norms of the World Commerce Organization."
The Herald goes on to say that Giorgi stated that, "everything that the market demands in terms of imported food products will be available in this country."
Standby for more!
2 comments:
This incompetence would be comical if were not so frightening. We are more and more beginning to look like a banana republic. How embarrassing!
Nothing like stability and all that :)
Thanks for keeping up with all of this, I appreciate it .. since I keep wondering where and what to substitute my favorite "out of town" things with here .. so far the substitutes are so poor, I end up giving up something else :(
Poor me ~
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