Английский разговорный язык. Практическое пособие по развитию устной речи

Persistent government interventions in the sector – including export bans and restrictions on beef, wheat, corn and milk products, rising export duties and price controls – provoked farmers to go on strike this month for the second time this year. The strike, which involved withholding produce from the market, ended on Monday but no agreement was reached with the government, and leaders of farming associations are already threatening more and longer strikes in 2007.

«We are stuck with this interventionist system, where any day of the week short-term measures can be introduced, so that one day something is profitable and the next it isn\'t. Who can invest or think ahead in such an unpredictable country?» said Luciano Miguens, the president of the most traditional farming group, the Argentine Rural Society, which did not join the earlier strike.

Eduardo Buzzi, the leader of the Argentine Agrarian Federation, which protects the interests of smaller farmers, worries that government policy is damaging competitiveness abroad. «The government needs to ensure that national production is stable and predictable. At the moment they are not doing the right thing to be a trust – worthy supplier of a country like Germany, for example,» he says.

While farmers acknowledge that high international commodity prices should be a boon to agriculture, a cornerstone of the Argentine economy, they complain that the government is preventing them from taking advantage.

Furthermore, they say, measures such as the ban on beef exports have been ineffectual in preventing inflation. Although the price of livestock fell by about 30 per cent following the ban, prices in supermarkets fell by only 8 per cent. Such policies have merely resulted in a transfer of wealth away from producers of over $260m (Ј197m, i132m) this year, according to Mr Miguens. «I don\'t know if it\'s just that they don\'t want to under-stand the issues or that they really don\'t understand,» he says.

Farmers say the basic solution is to increase production, which has stagnated in recent years despite rising demand both at home and abroad. «Ever since it was elected, this government has completely failed to establish a plan for something as fundamental to our economy as beef or grains,» says Mr Buzzi.

Until production increases, farmers say there will continue to be pressure on prices. As agricultural produce has such a heavy weighting in the basket of goods used to track prices, this complicates the government\'s task of controlling inflation, one of its highest priorities. Thanks to its determined but controversial implementation of price controls this year, inflation looks set to fall to about 10 per cent for 2006, down from 12.3 per cent in 2005.

One representative of the farming sector involved in negotiations fears that differences in the government are complicating matters, with the economy minister, Felisa Miceli, pitted against the powerful secretary for internal commerce, Guillermo Moreno, who is responsible for enforcing price controls.

«Moreno is a fundamentalist. Bin Laden would be easier to negotiate with,» said the negotiator, who preferred to remain anonymous.

«Miceli understands that if there\'s no investment, inflation won\'t go away, but Moreno doesn\'t – the problem is who will win the tug of war. Moreno seems to think he can change the law of gravity.»

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By Benedict Mander in Buenos Aires

Слова и выражения:

acknowledge – признавать, подтверждать

advantage – преимущество

aggravate – ухудшать, отягчать

agreement – соглашение

anonymous – анонимный

Argentine – Аргентина

attempt – попытка; пытаться

ban – запрет; запрещать

beef

– говядина

boon – благо, благодеяние

competitiveness – конкурентоспособность

complain – жаловаться

complicate – усложнять

controversial – спорный, противоречивый

cornerstone – краеугольный камень

curb – обуздывать

elect – выбирать, избирать

enforce – вводить силой

fundamental – фундаментальный

fundamentalist

– фундаменталист

furthermore – далее

implementation – внедрение, введение

implore – умолять

impose – налагать, навязывать

ineffectual – неэффективный

interventionist – интервенционистский

involve – вовлекать

issue – пункт, проблема, вопрос

kilo – килограмм

livestock – поголовье скота

merely

– просто, едва

minister – министр

move – шаг, движение; двигаться

negotiator – переговорщик

persistent – настойчивый, настоятельный

pit – противостоять, выставлять в качестве противника

powerful – мощный, сильный, властный

prevent – предотвращать

priority – приоритет

provoke – провоцировать

restriction – ограничение

rural – сельский

stagnate – стагнировать, находиться в застое