Debate record: COMISIÓN COMPLETA: ECONOMÍA - 23-04-2026 - INFORMATIVA - Diputados Argentina

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Source: Honorable Cámara de Diputados de la Nación · COMISIÓN COMPLETA: ECONOMÍA - 23-04-2026 - INFORMATIVA - Diputados Argentina

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Luciano Galfione, Textil Galfione y Fundación Proteger

Representante del sector agrotextil e indumentaria

Galfione offered one of the most forceful sectoral testimonies of the session, quantifying the destruction of activity in the sector and linking it directly to trade liberalization policy. He criticized the lack of oversight over undervalued imports and the state's tolerance toward the entry of used clothing, which competes unfairly with local production. He proposed a shift in model that places national industry at the center of economic development.

Key moments:

• Describes a year-on-year drop of more than 33% in activity in the agrotextile and clothing sector, attributed to the massive influx of irregular and undervalued imports, including used clothing. ▶ 1:36:11

"The government is flooding the market with unregulated imports and used clothing that makes it impossible to compete, destroying jobs and the productive capacity of the sector."

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Alejandro Crespo, Fate (tyre manufacturing company)

Secretario general del sindicato de neumáticos, trabajador de Fate hace 22 años

Crespo framed the Fate case as the most serious step in a sequence of industrial closures that has already reached a strategic scale: the plant concentrates eighty years of productive knowledge and has no possible replacement in the medium term. He noted that the courts declared the layoffs illegal and that three national legislative bills are currently in progress — expropriation, sectoral emergency, and designation as a national defense asset — but none has a confirmed vote date. He broadened the employment argument toward public safety, linking Fate tyres to ambulances, fire trucks, and defense vehicles.

Key moments:

• Describes the progress toward the closure of Fate and reports on three national legislative bills in progress — expropriation, tyre sector emergency, and classification of truck tyres as a national defense asset — with no confirmed date for consideration. ▶ 12:05
• Argues that the destruction of the plant would be irreversible in the medium term and links Fate tyres to the operational capacity of ambulances, fire trucks, and military vehicles, broadening the debate toward national security. ▶ 12:05

"What will matter in history is who intervened to prevent this from happening and kept something running that will later prove irreplaceable."

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Javier, Vicepresident of the Economy Committee (La Libertad Avanza)

Diputado nacional, vicepresidente de la Comisión de Economía, La Libertad Avanza

Javier was the only ruling-party spokesperson in a session overwhelmingly dominated by testimonies of industrial crisis, and chose to contrast aggregate macroeconomic data — unemployment, growth — with the sectoral figures presented by speakers without refuting any specific figures. He attributed most of the unemployment to the province of Buenos Aires and to Governor Kicillof's policies, shifting responsibility to the provincial level. He did not respond to specific allegations of customs underinvoicing nor to the non-enforcement of existing presidential resolutions on electrical certifications.

Key moments:

• Defends the opening of imports on the grounds that cheaper tyres reduce logistics costs, in direct response to the Fate case, and cites employment and growth figures to contrast with the sectoral testimonies. ▶ 2:26:04
• Conditions the tax reduction — a unanimous demand from business owners and workers — on the opposition supporting a reduction in public spending, shifting responsibility for the fiscal stalemate to the opposition bloc. ▶ 2:26:04

"To cut taxes, as everyone has been asking, we need to cut public spending. We need the opposition to support us in this plan to cut public spending so we can cut taxes."

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Dante Choy, PBODY

Empresario nacional, titular de PBODY (fabricante de electrónica y ventilación)

Choy provided the most concrete documentary evidence of the session: customs declarations in which the same importer declares the same product at radically different values at different times, constituting repeated underinvoicing. He linked the absence of oversight to concrete public safety risks, including a fire in the Senate of the Nation attributed to an imported electric kettle without a valid certification. He noted that an existing presidential resolution already requires customs to verify electrical certificates, but that it is not being enforced.

Key moments:

• Presents customs declarations declaring imported ceiling fans from China at between 5 and 7.50 dollars per unit when the cost of materials exceeds 30 dollars, evidencing systematic underinvoicing. ▶ 23:10
• Denounces that an existing presidential resolution requiring customs to verify electrical certifications on imported products is not being enforced, turning his allegation into a direct accusation against customs management, not the regulatory framework. ▶ 23:10

"What I am here to demand is that the State fulfills the role of the State: policing powers and oversight."

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Norberto Fedele, Laminación Paulista y Unión Industrial de San Martín

Empresario PyME e integrante de la Unión Industrial de San Martín

Fedele offered a systemic diagnosis of the situation facing industrial SMEs in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, noting that the cost equation has become unviable due to the convergence of multiple simultaneous factors. His proposal was concrete and multidimensional, covering everything from access to credit to logistics infrastructure. He highlighted that competition from China is not only a matter of prices but of structural production conditions that the Argentine state does not equalize.

Key moments:

• Describes how the combination of a falling domestic market, utility tariffs, high interest rates, and a stagnant exchange rate makes it impossible for SMEs to compete against Chinese imports. ▶ 1:07:07

"We need to guarantee productive financing, control imports, reduce taxes, and invest in logistics so that national industry can compete."

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Manuel Casas, Asindar

Representante de Asindar (sector siderúrgico nacional)

Casas directly linked the collapse of domestic steel demand to the government's decision to halt public works, noting that national steelmaking acts as a thermometer for infrastructure investment. He warned that without restrictions on imports of Chinese and Brazilian origin, the sector cannot recover even if demand were to reactivate, because origin prices are subsidized. He advocated for specific tariff restrictions as a necessary condition for recovery.

Key moments:

• Details how the halting of public works and the economic slowdown directly impacted Asindar's steel production and led to job losses. ▶ 51:25

"The national steel industry cannot compete with indiscriminate imports from China and Brazil without the State intervening with clear tariff restrictions."

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Aldo Castón, Mood Alfajores y Unión Industrial de Chaco

Empresario e integrante de UNINOR (Unión Industrial del Norte Grande)

Castón spoke on behalf of a broader regional platform, UNINOR, giving his intervention greater representative weight than that of an individual business owner. The declaration of industrial emergency he read constitutes a formal document that elevates the demand to an institutional level, calling on Congress for a specific legislative response. The proposal for a permanent working group aims to institutionalize dialogue between the productive sector of the north and the national legislature.

Key moments:

• Reads a UNINOR document declaring the industrial sector of the Norte Grande region to be in a state of emergency, citing irreversible loss of productive capacity and proposing an industrial emergency law with tax reforms. ▶ 30:29

"The industrial sector of the Norte Grande is in a state of emergency: the loss of productive capacity we are experiencing is irreversible if the State does not act now with a specific law."

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Sebastián Tesoro, José Orellano y Adrián Aguilar, Fate workers

Trabajadores de Fate en conflicto

The three workers put a human face on the Fate conflict, complementing Crespo's technical and strategic argument with the personal and family dimension of the crisis. The reference to the company owner's wealth in contrast to the workers' helplessness constructed a moral argument that resonated in the room. The occupation of the plant as an established fact gives political urgency to the legislative debate.

Key moments:

• Describe the dismissal of more than 900 families, the occupation of the plant as a response, and denounce the conduct of Fate's owner, contrasting his wealth with the workers' helplessness. ▶ 18:05

"They threw us out overnight — we are more than 900 families left with nothing, and the owner speculates with his millions while we occupy the plant to stop them from stripping it."

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Jorge Greve, Cámara Argentina de Certificaciones

Representante de la Cámara Argentina de Certificaciones

Greve provided a perspective complementary to Choy's: while the latter spoke from the perspective of an affected company, Greve spoke from the sectoral body responsible for certification, giving the problem a systemic and institutional dimension. The mention of statistics on deaths from electrical incidents linked to uncertified products elevated the argument from the economic to the public safety plane. He identified Resolution 237 as the regulatory instrument that enabled this deterioration.

Key moments:

• Warns that Resolution 237 deregulated import controls on electrical products, generating a massive influx of uncertified items that has caused serious electrical incidents and deaths, as well as unfair competition. ▶ 2:09:05

"Resolution 237 opened the door to uncertified products that are killing people and destroying the companies that do comply with the rules."

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Norma Morales, UTEP

Representante de la Unión de Trabajadores de la Economía Popular (UTEP)

Morales broadened the debate beyond formal industry to make visible the impact of policies on the most vulnerable segment of the labor market: workers in the popular economy. The figure of 935,000 people affected by the elimination of the complementary wage gave quantitative weight to her denunciation. She noted that the government's industrial policies ignore those who work in unregistered or informal sectors, which represent a majority share of actual employment.

Key moments:

• Denounces the elimination of the social complementary wage for 935,000 workers in the popular economy and criticizes the government for focusing on sectors that do not generate mass employment. ▶ 1:00:08

"The government took away the complementary wage from 935,000 workers in the popular economy and turns its back on those with the least, while talking about growth."

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Javier Dito, Central de Sindicatos Industriales de la República Argentina

Representante de la Central de Sindicatos Industriales de la República Argentina

Dito provided the overall union perspective on the automotive sector, one of the most employment-intensive in Argentine formal industry. The use of the term 'industriicide' as a political category summarizes the position of industrial unions: that what is happening is not a transition but a deliberate or negligent destruction. The figure of 40% installed capacity utilization in the automotive sector is one of the most serious sectoral indicators cited in the session.

Key moments:

• Denounces an 'industriicide' in Argentina and notes that the automotive industry, which directly and indirectly employs nearly one million people, is operating at 40% of its installed capacity due to the convergence of falling consumption, tax pressure, and uncontrolled imports. ▶ 2:15:12

"We are facing an industriicide: the automotive sector employs nearly one million people in Argentina and is operating at 40% capacity because the current model is destroying it."

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Paco Manrique, Confederación de Sindicatos Industriales

Diputado nacional, representante de la Confederación de Sindicatos Industriales

Manrique offered the most articulate political critique from the parliamentary opposition, combining union language with a democratic argument: the harm he describes is not only economic but also institutional. The characterization of the model as a 'democratic accident' is the harshest characterization made by a legislator during the session. His call for unity aims to build a coalition that extends beyond opposition parties and includes workers and business owners themselves.

Key moments:

• Describes the government's economic model as a 'democratic accident' that destroys national industry, favors foreign interests, and condemns workers, calling for unity across all sectors to reverse it through democratic means. ▶ 2:41:03

"This model is a democratic accident: it destroys national industry, favors outsiders, and leaves Argentine workers with no future."

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Pitrola, Partido Obrero - Frente de Izquierda

Diputado nacional, Partido Obrero - Frente de Izquierda

Pitrola was the most confrontational legislator of the session, fully aligning himself with the workers' testimonies and raising the level of demands to the constitutional plane with his impeachment proposal. His intervention functioned as a catalyst for the tension accumulated over hours of testimony, articulating the grievances of the workers present in the chamber in terms of immediate political action. His proposal for the temporary occupation of Fate as an urgent measure coincides with the demand of the workers themselves.

Key moments:

• Supports the temporary occupation of Fate as an urgent measure, denounces the government's attack on workers and industry, and proposes the impeachment of the Executive Branch as a response to the industrial crisis. ▶ 2:57:01

"Fate must be occupied now, all struggles must be unified, and impeachment proceedings must be opened against a government that destroys industry and condemns workers."

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Hugo Yaski, Member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies

Diputado nacional, oposición

Yaski used the comparison with Peru as a prospective argument: if Argentina continues on the path of openness without industrialization, the long-term results will be similar to those of that country. His intervention aimed to address legislators from the centrist opposition who might not share Pitrola's more radical diagnosis but could agree with the argument about the model's sustainability. He called for concrete legislative action without specifying which initiatives Congress should prioritize.

Key moments:

• Compares the government's economic model to that of Peru — high poverty, low industrialization — as a warning about where trade liberalization without industrial policy leads, and calls on Congress to act. ▶ 2:51:38

"If we continue down this path we will end up like Peru: high poverty, no industry, and a few getting rich at everyone else's expense."

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Fernando Pérez, John Fus worker

Trabajador de John Fus (empresa de calzado)

Pérez opened the round of sectoral testimonies with the concrete case of a footwear company, establishing a pattern that would repeat throughout the session: trade liberalization, Asian competition, plant closure, job losses. The reference to 60% severance payments for long-tenured workers adds a dimension of labor precariousness to the closure that goes beyond the loss of the job itself.

Key moments:

• Describes the collapse of John Fus: from peak production in 2023 to imminent closure due to the elimination of tariff protections, with mass layoffs and proposals to pay only 60% of severance to long-serving employees. ▶ 6:30

"In two years we went from producing at full capacity to closing because of Asian products that entered without controls, and on top of that they offer us 60% severance for those of us who have been there for years."

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Pablo Brarda, Lácteos Verónica

Representante de trabajadores de Lácteos Verónica

The Lácteos Verónica case introduced to the session the dimension of deliberate corporate asset-stripping as a specific factor in the labor crisis, distinct from the unfair import competition argument. The absence of healthcare coverage since December for 700 families adds an immediate health crisis to the labor conflict. The reference to the lack of employment alternatives in the affected region of Santa Fe underscores that the damage is also communal and not merely individual.

Key moments:

• Denounces that 700 families at Lácteos Verónica have gone months without wages or healthcare coverage due to an alleged asset-stripping of the company, in a region of Santa Fe with few employment alternatives. ▶ 45:52

"We are 700 families without wages and without health coverage since December because they stripped the company bare, and in our region there is nowhere else to work."

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Rubén Fernando Brandán, NEVA Electrodomésticos

Ex trabajador de NEVA Electrodomésticos

Brandán provided one of the most emotionally moving personal testimonies of the session, combining years of experience working in a factory with a firsthand account of its closure. The reference to inadequate compensation for long-serving NEVA employees connects with Pérez's account at John Fus, forming a pattern of double loss: the job and the severance payment. His intervention carried significant moral weight in the tone of the debate.

Key moments:

• Tearfully recounts the closure of NEVA Electrodomésticos, with 160 jobs lost due to the impossibility of competing with cheaper imports, and denounces that long-serving workers are not receiving adequate compensation. ▶ 1:30:13

"I worked years at NEVA and today we are all out on the street because we cannot compete with what comes in from abroad; the government is destroying national industry and no one is held accountable for us."

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Pablo Cigot, Aires del Sur y Oscar Martínez, UOM Tierra del Fuego

Empresario de Aires del Sur y dirigente sindical de la UOM Tierra del Fuego

The combined intervention of Cigot and Martínez framed the Aires del Sur conflict across three dimensions: labor, regional, and sovereign. The reference to Tierra del Fuego as a strategic territory whose industry has sovereignty implications adds a political argument that transcends the wage claim. Cigot also directly interrupted two La Libertad Avanza legislators — Javier and Harfield — which were the moments of greatest tension in the session.

Key moments:

• Denounce that the owners of Aires del Sur abandoned the company leaving 140 families unpaid for months, and argue that government policies are destroying Tierra del Fuego's industry and compromising regional sovereignty. ▶ 1:53:55
• Cigot directly confronts Deputy Javier, challenging his claims about job creation while workers have gone months without being paid. ▶ 2:37:15
• Cigot challenges Deputy Harfield, asking about the difference between the money in the legislator's account and the situation of workers with no income. ▶ 3:12:06

"Can you talk to me about job creation while I haven't been paid for months? We don't want to wait for the model to adapt; we want decent work now."

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Gustavo Alberto Mata y Trejo, petroleum and gas sector

Representante del sector petrolero y gasífero

Mata y Trejo offered the only sectoral perspective with optimistic projections during the session, positioning oil and gas as the growth vector the government points to as a counterweight to deindustrialization. However, his argument that the sector generates more jobs than officially recorded was not precisely quantified during the session, which limited its impact on the debate. His demand for tax reduction and regulatory stability coincides with that of the other sectors, though from a comparatively more comfortable position.

Key moments:

• Argues that the oil and gas sector generates far more employment than official figures indicate when the value chain is included, and demands consistent long-term policies and tax reductions for the development of LNG export projects. ▶ 1:18:02

"Argentina has a historic opportunity in LNG, but it needs long-term policies and a tax burden that doesn't kill investment before it even begins."

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Manuel López, Portlander Brewery

Empresario, dueño de Portlander Brewery

López represented the segment of small and medium-sized consumer goods industrial companies that do not compete directly with imports but suffer from the drop in domestic consumption and the tax burden. His specific request — eliminating the 8.7% excise tax on beer — is a technical and targeted demand that contrasts with the broader requests of other speakers. His story of growth and resilience during the pandemic humanized the business testimony.

Key moments:

• Describes Portlander Brewery operating at 20% of capacity due to falling sales and requests the elimination of the 8.7% excise tax on beer as a concrete measure to improve the sector's competitiveness. ▶ 38:20

"We survived the pandemic and now we operate at 20%; if you eliminate the excise tax on beer, we can grow again and create jobs."

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Óscar Herrera Guad, Member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies

Diputado nacional, Innovación Federal

Herrera Guad built his argument on a political fact arising from the session's own dynamics: the complete absence of worker voices in defense of the government. This observation points to a social legitimacy deficit of the ruling party that transcends the technical debate. His specific demand regarding Article 10 of the SME Law for Misiones — a province bordering Brazil and Paraguay — incorporates the dimension of regional economies with structural competitive disadvantages due to their geographic location.

Key moments:

• Notes that no worker representative defended government policies throughout the entire session and interprets this as evidence of the ruling party's political isolation from the working class. ▶ 3:19:22
• Demands the immediate application of Article 10 of the SME Law to support the regional economies of Misiones, a province especially vulnerable due to its border with Brazil and Paraguay. ▶ 3:21:22

"Throughout this entire session, not a single worker came forward to defend the government's policies. That says everything about the ruling party's isolation from the working class."

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Diego Harfield, La Libertad Avanza

Diputado nacional, La Libertad Avanza

Harfield invoked the democratic mandate as a shield against criticism, arguing that the 2023 electoral result constitutes popular endorsement of the liberalization model. His intervention was the second ruling-party defense of the session after Javier's, but focused more on the political-electoral argument than the economic one. The comparison with the 2023 situation as a starting point repeats the ruling party's argumentative strategy of anchoring the debate at the point of inheritance rather than the point of arrival.

Key moments:

• Defends the economic liberalization model by citing the 2023 electoral result as a democratic mandate and criticizes the opposition for endorsing calls to remove the president while ignoring the need for economic transformation. ▶ 3:05:04

"Argentines democratically chose this model in 2023; we cannot go back to the framework that led us to the disaster we came from."

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Gabriela, Member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies (La Libertad Avanza)

Diputada nacional, La Libertad Avanza

Gabriela offered the most doctrinaire defense of free markets in the session, positioning trade liberalization as a benefit for consumers that previous governments denied them through protectionism. Her argument did not refute any of the plant closure or job loss figures presented by the speakers, but rather reframed the debate in terms of consumer sovereignty versus producer protection. Her criticism of the opposition for inciting disorder reflects a political reading of Cigot's interruptions during the session.

Key moments:

• Defends trade liberalization as a pro-consumer policy that breaks with the protectionism that historically inflated prices to benefit specific productive sectors at the expense of the majority of the population. ▶ 3:12:14

"The protectionism the opposition defends always ended the same way: inflated prices for everyone and benefits for a few; the free market gives power back to the consumer."

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Andrea Freites, Member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies

Diputada nacional, oposición

Freites provided the perspective of a legislator from Tierra del Fuego, a region particularly sensitive to industrial policies due to its specific promotion regime and logistical vulnerability. Her references to concrete regional poverty data complemented the testimony of Cigot and Martínez with a legislative framing. She criticized the distance between the central government and the productive realities of the most remote provinces.

Key moments:

• Denounces the impact of national policies on Tierra del Fuego and other regions, citing alarming poverty rates and an industrial decline that the government neither understands nor addresses with differentiated policies for regional economies. ▶ 3:30:26

"The government doesn't understand what is happening in Tierra del Fuego or in the regions: they talk about growth while we watch poverty rise and industry close down."

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Julia Estrada, Member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies

Diputada nacional, miembro de la Comisión de Economía

Estrada's intervention was fundamentally organizational: she mapped out the legislative topics the committee will address in upcoming meetings, converting the day's testimonies into a concrete parliamentary agenda. The inclusion of Resolution 237 and the SME emergency law on that agenda directly reflects the most recurring demands of the session. Her role was to translate the grievances expressed in testimonies into future legislative work.

Key moments:

• Proposes the future work agenda of the Economy Committee, including customs oversight, textile composition, tariffs, used clothing imports, Resolution 237, and the SME emergency law. ▶ 2:24:03

"The Economy Committee will work on customs oversight, textile composition, tariffs, used clothing imports, Resolution 237, and the emergency law for SMEs."

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