Rural parliamentarians reject a possible export tax

The president of the Parliamentary Front for Agriculture (FPA), Federal Deputy Pedro Lupion (PP-PR), and the vice president of the FPA in the Senate, Senator Tereza Cristina (PP-MS), criticized the proposal from a faction of the Workers’ Party (PT) calling for a temporary tax on Brazilian agribusiness exports. According to a report by Folha de S. Paulo, the PT once again defended taxing exports as a measure to lower food prices.

The two parliamentarians are currently in Brussels, Belgium, on a mission to the European Parliament. For the FPA, the measure is “unreasonable” and aims to “harm the Brazilian agricultural sector.” “We came on a mission to the European Parliament to defend environmentally sustainable production and to highlight Brazil’s great potential to feed the world, and we read news like this, from PT factions, going ‘against the tide,’” Lupion criticized.

The proposal was also rejected by Tereza Cristina, former Minister of Agriculture. “My God, will they always choose the wrong path? Step aside and value Brazilian agriculture and all the great work our sector does for food security,” she replied.