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 Business News | May 2008 
My Government is Determined to Defend Families’ Economies: President Calderón
 Presidencia de la República
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| "Food security is a matter of state for my government. We are determined to defend families’ economies, particularly those of the neediest families in the country, who have least."
- President Calderón. | | |
Mexico City - President Felipe Calderón announced a series of actions to support families’ economies, based three main points and designed to shield Mexicans' financial situation from world food price increases.
These actions will facilitate Mexican consumers' access to better food prices on the international market; encourage food production, increase the productivity of the Mexican countryside and protect the income and economies of the poorest families in the country.
Firstly, taxes on imported wheat, rice, and white and yellow corn will be lifted, a tariff-free bean import quota will be authorized; tax on imported powdered milk will be halved; import tariffs on yellow corn, sorghum and soybean paste will be totally eliminated and alternatives will be negotiated with self-service stores to prevent sharp food price increases and make the basic food basket available at affordable prices.
President Felipe Calderón also said that in order to support agricultural producers, all tariffs on nitrogenated fertilizers and chemical inputs for manufacturing fertilizers in the country would be eliminated. Preferential credits will be given to over 500,000 small agricultural producers while fertilizers will be sold at affordable prices at DICONSA shops. The technification of irrigation in the Mexican countryside will be promoted to ensure a rate of 500,000 technified hectares a year until 2012. A fund of $20 billion pesos is available for enable producers to purchase equipment and machinery; and federal programs, such as PROCAMPO, the Program to Support Cattle Raising, and the Alliance for the Countryside will be reinforced, while electricity for pumping and diesel for agricultural and fishing use will be subsidized.
The third section entails the commercialization of food products at affordable prices for the poorest areas of the country and the creation of a maize reserve. Tortilla prices will be maintained, and the Living Better food support program will be implemented, which will benefit the five million three hundred thousand families living in extreme poverty, enrolled in the Oportunidades program, who will now receive $655 pesos a month, constituting an investment of $4.5 billion pesos, while Federal Government will help to maintain gasoline, diesel and LP gas prices, for which $200 billion pesos have been assigned.
"Food security is a matter of state for my government. We are determined to defend families’ economies, particularly those of the neediest families in the country, who have least," stated President Calderón.
Accompanied by the secretaries comprising the Social and Economic Cabinets, the President stated that this is time for unity, solidarity and patriotism to ensure the well-being of Mexicans who experience the greatest hardship. |
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