Moretti's harsh criticism
On Industry Day, marked by business complaints over the sector's crisis and the absence of top national officials, the vice president of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA), Guillermo Moretti, said that members of Javier Milei's government do not know the country or what industry is. He said they have no idea what industry is, and that the country is being run by a 'Rivadavia II', an indebtedness trader who doesn't know what a lathe is.[S1]
Moretti's statements came hours before Industry Day was celebrated at a laboratory in Los Polvorines, with a particular political picture: Milei decided not to send any of his first-line officials, and the only government representative is the Secretary of Industry, Pablo Lavigne. There will also be no officials from the province of Buenos Aires, while Axel Kicillof organizes his own event in Morón. The chosen venue is not casual: Elea, of the Sigman, Gold and Sielecki families, is a national capital laboratory that until now opposed the patent treaty that the government committed to with the United States.[S1]
Accusations against the economic team
In that context, Moretti attacked: he said that the person in charge must know a lot about finance because his personal finances increased one year by 37% in dollars, while Argentina was indebted that year. He wondered why the same approach used for himself is not used for the country. He acknowledged that there are sectors where the government is betting strongly, such as mining, energy and oil, which are rising in various charts, but the manufacturing industry as a whole is in a very, very difficult situation.[S1][S2]
Moretti attributed the sector's situation to the lack of an industrial policy by the government, saying that everything being done is a policy of deindustrialization. He stated that there can be no industry without technical schools, universities, CONICET, or INTI. He considered that the future of the activity is very precarious and very difficult, and emphasized the importance of the internal market for productive development, noting that no country has developed industrially without an internal market.[S1]
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UIA's demands and diagnosis
The UIA took advantage of the Industry Day celebration to raise the tone of its claims to the government. In an event at the Elea Laboratory plant in Malvinas Argentinas, the business entity stated that the drop in inflation and fiscal order are necessary but insufficient to evaluate the economy's progress if industrial activity remains depressed. UIA president Martín Rappallini said that the economy cannot be measured only by inflation, but must also look at activity.[S3]
According to the diagnosis presented by the industrial central, industrial production is 10% below 2022 levels, while in some branches the falls reach between 25% and 30%. Since August 2023, the sector would have lost around 90,000 registered salaried jobs. Rappallini stressed that the UIA's approach does not imply abandoning the stabilization process, but rather warning about the impact that a prolonged drop in activity can have on employment, consumption, investment, collection, and macroeconomic stability itself.[S3]
During the event, the UIA presented a seven-point agenda defined as a bridge between the current economic situation and a more competitive economy. The main claims included recovery of activity and credit, reduction of the so-called Argentine cost, measures against unfair competition, review of energy costs, tools against business delinquency, investment in infrastructure, and labor modernization with reduced litigation. The entity also requested mechanisms to reprogram bank and tax debts, suspend embargoes on companies with liquidity problems, and accelerate the return of tax balances in favor of companies.[S3]
