BUENOS AIRES - Argentine President Mauricio Macri said he would sign a decree on Monday eliminating corn and wheat export taxes as part of his plan to revitalize the country's farm sector after years of antagonism with the government.
The decree will also cut the export tax on soybeans, the country's main cash crop, from 35 percent to 30 percent.
A major plank of Macri's farm policy in the run-up to the Nov. 22 election was his promise to bolster the farm sector by cutting taxes imposed by previous President Cristina Fernandez.
Corn exports have been taxed at 20 percent and wheat at 23 percent. The decree will also eliminate a 15 percent export tax placed on beef exports.
Macri, who promises free-market solutions to Argentina's long list of economic woes, won last month's election against a candidate from Fernandez's party. He took office on Thursday.
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"Today, as I promised during the campaign, I am betting on the farm sector's ability to increase production," Macri told a group of growers gathered for the announcement. "As soon as I land in the capital city, I will sign the decree."
The event took place at a farm in the town of Pergamino, in the heart of the Pampas grains belt in Buenos Aires province.
"No longer will the debate be planted in terms of the industrial sector versus the farm sector, or the farm sector versus the country," Macri said. "It's the farmers and the country."
Fernandez had feuded with the country's growers since protests over her tax policies paralyzed the agriculture sector and rocked her government in 2008.
After two terms in office, she left Argentina with inflation estimated at more than 20 percent, a yawning fiscal deficit and low central bank reserves.
Argentina's farmers are racing to grow more corn now that Macri has taken power, increasing the area planted by 10 percent over previous estimates and making more exports likely from one of the world's biggest suppliers. They can plant corn until mid-January, while wheat goes into the ground midyear.
More than 90 percent of corn planted in Argentina is genetically modified. Sales of GMO seeds have jumped since the Nov. 22 election, as have those of related agro-chemicals and the weed killers glyphosate and atrazine sold by companies like Monsanto Co.
