Argentina: GoA Ups Ante on Export Tax Debate - Announces

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000331 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EFIN ETRD PGOV AR SUBJECT: Argentina: GoA Ups Ante on Export Tax Debate - Announces Partial Revenue Sharing with Provinces Ref: (A) Buenos Aires 314 (B) '08 Buenos Aires 1549 -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (SBU) President Kirchner announced March 19 that, via emergency decree, the GoA will share 30% of export tax proceeds on soybeans with provincial governments and municipalities. These funds, roughly US$ 1.8 billion per year at current commodity prices, are to be earmarked for "social infrastructure" spending, including hospitals, schools, and water systems. Agricultural groups have portrayed the revenue-sharing announcement as an attempt to buy the support of cash-strapped provincial Governors in advance of mid-term elections, likely to be held on June 28. They reject the GoA's description of the initiative as an effort to boost provincial welfare, and have called for more roadblocks, some of which were reportedly put in place just hours after Kirchner's speech. Local analysts speculate that the GoA's revenue-sharing announcement, which will reduce the federal primary fiscal surplus, will prompt further depreciation of the peso, already under pressure due to Argentines' concerns over a decelerating economy and uncertainties generated by the GoA push to advance elections. The President's announcement is clearly an effort by the Kirchner administration to fragment the alliance of agricultural producers and governors of rural provinces who favor of a reduction in GoA export taxes. End Summary. -------------- GoA Emergency Revenue-Sharing Decree -------------- ¶2. (SBU) In a hastily convened ceremony the evening of March 19 at the presidential residence that included the full cabinet and governors of major provinces, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (CFK) announced that, via emergency decree, the GoA will share 30% of export tax proceeds on soybeans (including soybean meal and soybean oil) with provincial governments and municipalities. (Export taxes have traditionally not been shared with the provinces, with 100% going to the federal treasury.) In her remarks, the President estimated that this revenue-sharing will, at current soy prices, provide provinces an additional US$ 1.8 billion annually (approximately 0.5% of GDP),boosting their federal revenue-sharing income by roughly 11% per year. ¶3. (SBU) The GoA published decree N 206 March 20, creating a special "Federal Solidarity Fund" to channel the 30% revenue share to the provinces. The funds will be earmarked for "social infrastructure" spending, including hospitals, schools, water systems and other projects. According to the decree, state-owned Banco de la Nacion will daily and automatically transfer the funds to the provinces (divided according to the normal "co-participation" distribution formulas that apply to GoA transfers). Provincial governments will then be obligated to automatically distribute 30% of what they receive to their own municipal governments. This will leave the provincial governments with approximately US$1.2 billion stemming from this new measure, which enters into force April 1. (Note: Main soy-producing provinces -- Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Santa Fe, Entre Rios, Santiago del Estero, and Chaco -- will still receive less than what they provide to the solidarity fund. Under the existing revenue sharing "co-participation" system, those six provinces receive 52% of GoA revenue-sharing funds, whereas they contribute over 90% of soy export tax revenue.) ¶4. (SBU) This GoA move follows on the heels of two recent developments that have raised the temperature of the year-long conflict between the GoA and the agricultural sector over what the latter sees as a lack of GoA support in the face of lower agricultural commodity prices and damage sustained by the sector due to the worst drought in 50 years. The first development was an inconclusive meeting on March 17 -- the fourth in four weeks -- of GoA Production Minister Giorgi and Interior Minister Randazzo with agricultural sector association leaders who seek a reduction in the 35% soy export tariff (Ref A). The second was the March 19 failure of opposition parliamentarians -- in the face of ruling party intransigence -- to muster a quorum to have export tariffs debated by the full lower house. -------------- Impact on Primary Fiscal Surplus -------------- ¶5. (SBU) In her remarks, CFK admitted the measure "means a diminution of the nation's fiscal surplus, but we believe that sustaining the nation's accounts also means sustaining provincial and municipal accounts." According to official statistics, export taxes provided roughly 13% of total GoA revenues in 2008, and taxes on soy exports are a significant percentage of this total, so the proposed sharing of soy export tax revenues has the potential to impact the primary fiscal surplus. (Exact figures are unavailable, but export tax revenues from soybeans are estimated to comprise up to 75% of total revenues from exports of the main grains and oilseeds crops, which make up a large majority of total export tax revenue.) ¶6. (SBU) While the measure will reduce GoA revenues by $1.8bn per year, analysts expect the GoA to compensate by reducing discretionary transfers to the provinces. These discretionary transfers reached 1.5% of GDP in 2008; before this announcement, analysts had expected (and had included in their 2009 fiscal surplus estimates) that discretionary transfers would have risen to 2% of GDP (or roughly US$6 billion). If the GoA instead maintains discretionary transfers at the 2008 percentage level, the net impact is minimal. ¶7. (SBU) The GoA reported March 19 that the central government's primary fiscal surplus dropped to just US $1.6 billion in February, down 20% from January levels and down 50% y-o-y. While the GoA's 2009 budget targets a primary fiscal surplus of 3.3% of GDP, there is growing concern that declining tax revenues (due to lower global commodity prices, significant declines in export volumes, and a contracting economy) and the GoA's intent to maintain contra-cyclical spending in advance of mid-term elections will make it difficult for the GoA to achieve this target. Any significant increase in transfers to the Province will further complicate GoA efforts to maintain a strong fiscal position. -------------- Farm Groups and GoA Trade Barbs -------------- ¶8. (SBU) Agricultural groups have portrayed the revenue sharing announcement as an attempt to buy the support of cash-strapped provincial Governors in advance of mid-term elections which could be held as early as June 28. Analysts believe the Kirchners hope to co-opt the governors by giving them a stake in the controversial soy tax revenues, and thus keep them from siding with the farmers. Gaining the buy-in of governors will also thwart farmers' efforts to get Congress to lower the export duties, since many legislators answer directly to their provincial governors. "This is a new declaration of war on the agriculture sector," said opposition Senator Gerardo Morales. "They're putting soy money directly into the campaign," Argentine Agrarian Federation head Eduardo Buzzi said in an interview with local media. Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo responded that the CFK revenue-sharing initiative proves the GoA wants to boost provincial welfare, rather than collect high export taxes for its own purposes. "It's not about the coffers," Randazzo said, "It's about increasing and sustaining economic activity and employment." Farmers' groups appear to have rejected this explanation, have called the measure a "provocation" and have called for more roadblocks, some of which were reportedly put in place just hours after CFK's speech. -------------- Market Reaction: More Pressure on the Peso? -------------- ¶9. (SBU) It is as yet early to determine how markets will react to this announcement, and it will also be difficult to differentiate market reactions to this announcement while domestic equity and fixed income markets are still roiled by GoA's efforts to move up elections. Nevertheless, many analysts speculate that this announcement will result in the further depreciation of the peso, already under pressure due to Argentines' concerns over the deceleration of the economy and the uncertainty generated by the decision to advance the elections. Not only does this measure increase concerns about the GoA's fiscal strength and ability to meet debt payments, but if farmers respond by continuing to withhold exports, it will reduce the amount of dollars circulating in the economy. Despite market expectations that the Argentine Central Bank will continue to intervene strongly in the spot and future markets to maintain the peso stable, analysts now expect the peso to hit 3.80 or higher prior to the late-June elections (compared to the current level of 3.67 pesos/dollar). -------------- Comment -------------- ¶10. (SBU) It remains to be seen whether the President's announcement will result in a net increase of funds for the provinces, but clearly it is an effort by the Kirchner administration to fragment the alliance of agricultural producers and governors of rural provinces who favor a reduction in GoA export taxes. Pundits have interpreted this as a shrewd move by former President Nestor Kirchner to respond to farmer and local government complaints that the GoA uses export tax revenues discretionally to reward its urban constituencies rather than return them to rural soy producing areas. Additionally, by increasing revenue transfers to the provinces, the GoA is likely to garner extra political support from provincial governors and mayors ahead of the midterm legislative elections. Governors routinely complain that the GOA is not living up to legal requirements to share designated federal revenue streams with the provinces. Some governors and many local analysts also accuse the GoA of political favoritism in disbursing the funds and not following the complex and partially population-based distribution formula established by law (See Ref B for a detailed history of Argentina's provincial revenue sharing system). Finally, the President's announcement may succeed in reducing popular support for farmers' demands for lower export taxes, since the fund will be used for politically popular social and infrastructure projects. WAYNE