Producers will not recognize dialogue agreements

The Grand National Alliance for Panama, which brings together 120 unions of agricultural producers, and related organizations has warned that it will not recognize the agreements reached in the dialogue in Penonomé, in which popular groups and trade unions meet with government representatives.

 Archbishop, José Domingo Ulloa, facilitator, declared that the sectors that are not currently represented in the negotiation will be included in the “second phase”.

The first three issues included at the negotiating table were the reduction and freezing of the basic basket; reduction and freezing of the price of fuel, and reduction and supply of medicines, without privatizing.

A fourth point proposed that 6% of the gross domestic product (GDP) be allocated to education.

At the dialogue table, a 30% reduction in the basic basket was agreed upon, for which the Government promised to take a series of complementary measures, such as the establishment of price caps

José Concepción Sánchez, president of the National Association of Cattlemen (Anagan), said that the price control of five cuts of meat from 2014 has caused an estimated loss of $150 million to ranchers.

Production costs have skyrocketed forcing small ranchers to leave.

The president of the National Council of Private Enterprise (Conep), Rubén Castillo Gill, classified the dialogue as “illegitimate”, given the non-participation of the private sector.

In an open letter, they see, with acute perplexity, that the dialogue advances at the speed of a single thought. “One sector turned it into a theater of political proposals, which insults and outrages those who create jobs and promote development.”

Panama needs real solutions and an authentic act of contrition from all; mainly, from the authorities that must make profound rectifications with regard to the fight against corruption and the effective promotion of the austere State”, said the letter.