“A process that should not stop”: a rural entity supported the direction of Javier Milei’s Government, but demanded a roadmap to eliminate withholdings

Before national officials, governors, legislators and rural leaders from all over the country, Castagnani maintained that Argentina is going through “a process that should not stop” and defended policies aimed at fiscal balance, disinflation and modernization of the State.

“Ending bureaucracy, organizing public accounts and definitively closing spaces of corruption are not only administrative objectives: they are essential conditions to unleash the enormous productive potential of the country,” he stated.

At the same time, the head of CRA asked to avoid “empty media debate” and called to build long-term political and institutional agreements. “Dialogue is not giving up. Dialogue is understanding that without consensus there are no deep transformations or state policies capable of being sustained over time,” he remarked.

One of the central axes of the message was placed on the tax pressure on the sector. There he reiterated the historic demand for the elimination of withholdings. “We value the efforts made and the measures adopted, but we need a clear, predictable and definitive roadmap towards the total elimination of withholdings,” he noted.

Castagnani also pointed out against the burden of Gross Income than in the provinces It already equals or even exceeds that fiscal weight of withholdings. And he questioned the slowness of Justice in resolving tax disputes. “Today discussing the legality of a tax or fee can take fifteen or twenty years.s, while the producer continues to bear undue burdens,” he warned.

In international matters, The rural leader valued the ratification of the agreement between Mercosur and the European Unionand also highlighted the negotiations for a trade agreement with the United States. According to him, international insertion must be consolidated as “a true State policy.”

Another of the notable chapters of the speech was linked to the technical organizations of agriculture. Castagnani defended the role of the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), the National Agri-Food Health and Quality Service (SENASA) and the National Seed Institute (INASE), which he defined as “strategic institutions” for productive development.

Specifically covering INASE, in the midst of the debate for the accession of Argentina to UPOV 91the rural leader stressed that “he will have a determining role in one of the great challenges that lie ahead: building a modern, balanced and lasting seed law.”

Castagnani insisted that the entity has a “vocation for dialogue and consensus”, with the objective of “bringing positions closer together.” But he clarified that from space they have “a clear and inalienable conviction: defend the rights of producers“.

Regarding infrastructure, he called for moving forward with the Waterway tender, improving port routes and accesses and accompanied the Belgrano Cargas tender process to reduce logistics costs in the productive interior.

The president of CRA also dedicated a section of his speech to the regional economies and the defense of Patagonia against environmentalist sectors who, as he said, ““They try to install the idea that the region has no productive future.”

“No one takes more care of the land than those who live and work on it generation after generation,” he said, while claiming the coexistence between production, environmental sustainability and rural tourism.

At the political and institutional level, Castagnani once again supported the Clean Record project and demanded that it be approved “unanimously.” “Politics must be at the service of citizens and public ethics must be a guiding and inalienable principle,” he stated.

The closing of the speech was addressed to the young people of the CRA Ateneos, whom he called to get involved in building the future of the country. “The future is not expected. The future is built. And it starts today,” he expressed.

In addition, he thanked the members of the Liaison Table for their support andconfirmed the will to maintain the unity of the agricultural sectoror “in defense of the productive interior and Argentina.”

At the beginning of the speech, Castagnani remembered the recently deceased rural leaders Jorge Chemes and Martín Bruzzowhom he defined as “people of profound human value.” The audience responded with prolonged applause in recognition of both leaders of Argentine ruralism.

On the other hand, he defended with firmness to Patagonia and the regional economies in the face of the questions of “extreme environmentalism”, the moment of the speech where the most applause was heard from the attendees.

He maintained that the region has a strong productive tradition and that thousands of families live from agricultural work in adverse conditions, which is why he considered it “unacceptable” to propose a future without productive activity. Furthermore, he stated that production, sustainability and rural tourism can coexist, and assured that CRA will continue to support Patagonian producers and all the regional economies of the countryfrom the missionary herbalists to the Jujuy tobacco growers, in the face of what he defined as political, ideological and economic threats that put development and roots in the Argentine interior at risk.