Argentine president Eduardo Duhalde has assured many times that his presidency is transitory and
his goal to leave an "organized" country to whomever is elected next year. While rumors assure elections will be sooner and pressure from the IMF mounts, a transcendent subject frightens thousands of agricultural
producers: the partial privatization of the Argentine National Bank, or Banco Nacion, and eventually, of the Bank of Buenos Aires.Although only a few months of Duhalde's presidency remain, the current administration
announced weeks ago -through Secretary of Economy Roberto Lavagna- that the possibility of partially privatizing public banks is being studied, as an answer to requests by the IMF.
The idea, which isn't new, caused
concern among agricultural producers and representative organizations, who consider that their industry would be one of the most affected by the measure.
The players assure that there is no resistance to
modernization, transparency and the improvement of national and provincial public banks; but these processes aren't inevitably connected to the privatization of banks.
Over 14 million hectares are mortgaged to
Argentina's Banco Nacion. They are located in the most fertile areas of the country, and represent a great portion of the lands that produce exportable cereals and livestock that will surely allow the reactivation of
Argentina's devastated economy. The fear is based on the fact that if the Banco Nacion hands part of its stock over to the private sector, these lands might end up in foreign hands and with that, Argentina will lose one
of its last riches.
During the National Congress of the Argentine Agricultural Federation (FAA), its president Eduardo Buzzi referred to the existence of a "legal proposition presented by the FAA in Congress for
limiting the sale of agricultural lands to foreign investors, among others aspects."
But the FAA isn't the only organization worried by the issue. Argentine Rural Confederations (CRA) considered the option must be
studied deeply, through discussions leading to a general agreement. "Public banks have a basic function in the development of national production and have been a permanent and strategic ally to agricultural sectors. We
wish to keep this spirit but its restructuring is completely necessary, together with the improvement of its efficiency and modernization, offering transparency to its actions, and moving away from sectorial interests
and political pressures."
On the other hand, Leaders of the Argentine Rural Confederations of Buenos Aires and La Pampa (Carbap) expressed that the "strangling of national and provincial public banks" is the only way
out many sectors see for the financial crisis caused by the latest economic measures. "We aren't against the analysis of measures that may help improve the transparency and administration of public banks. But we don't
approve their elimination as witnesses of the financial system and promoters of growth," sustained representatives of the organization, reinforcing the concept of renovation but making clear the resistance to outright
sale.
Cause and effect
The problem of turning Argentine farmlands over to foreign owners has been at the center of discussions for several weeks. Due to their productive, ecological and economic
characteristics –now favored even more by the disparity between the U.S. dollar and the local peso- they have turned into an interesting subject for many foreign investors.
Over the past years, Argentine legal
weaknesses have allowed many sectors to get richer in detriment of others. Lobbies, pressures, and doubtful privatization procedures that favored powerful international groups have also damaged part of the productive
and industrial national sector, and this is exactly the ghost that once again rises to awaken fear.
Perhaps the problem isn't centered on who will own the lands, but who will be in charge of controlling and regulating
the rules that preserve -as Rousseau would express- the Social Pact.
