The Secretary of Commerce, Matias Tomboliniled this Tuesday afternoon the launch of the Observatory of Prices and Availability of Inputs, Goods and Servicesin a meeting attended by representatives of national organizations, companies, unions, consumer associations, universities, the provinces and the City of Buenos Aires.
During the meeting, the internal regulations of the Observatory were approved, a work agenda was defined on matters or areas of the market that should be the object of study and survey, and the integration of the “Work Table” that will be constituted to carry out Observatory activities.
Thus, Law No. 26,992, enacted in September 2014, was complied with, which establishes the Observatory of Prices and Availability of Inputs, Goods and Services as the technical body whose objective is to “monitor, survey and systematize the prices and availability of inputs, goods and services that are produced, marketed and provided in the territory of the Nation”.
“I want to thank all the members and those who are present at this meeting for their participation. The Observatory is a tool that allows us to reach a set of conclusions that are relevant and that gives us reliable information to continue bringing order and predictability to the economy. and to prices”, highlighted Tombolini during the meeting at the Secretariat of Commerce.
In this sense, he added that “the spirit of the observatory is listening that allows us to put on the table not only the price problem but also to know all the underlying cost process” and remarked that “this dynamic is what will be carried out” by the organization.
The Observatory, assured the Secretariat, is one more tool within the price monitoring board implemented by the national government to verify the cost structures of the different value chains in price formation, and is part of the initiatives to “order prices and bring predictability to the table of Argentines”.
Chaired by the head of the Ministry of Commerce, the Observatory will be made up of a representative of the Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers, a representative of the Ministry of the Interior, a representative of the Ministry of Public Works, a representative of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation , a representative of the Ministry of Economy and three representatives of the Users and Consumers Associations legally constituted and duly registered.
In this sense, they were designated as members of the Observatory, Rodolfo Yanez (Coordinator of the Cabinet of Advisors of the Head of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Nation), gabriel rubinstein (Secretary of Economic Programming of the Ministry of Economy), Gaston Jaques (Secretary of Transportation Planning of the Ministry of Transportation), Gustavo Iglesias (Undersecretary of Administrative Management of the Ministry of Science and Technology), Gustavo Villa Uría (Undersecretary of Hydraulic Works of the Ministry of Public Works) and Julia Gordillo (adviser at the Ministry of the Interior).
In addition, they will be part of the body Osvaldo Bassano, Pedro Bussetti and Ricardo Espinozaon behalf of consumer associations.
Since 2016, the Observatory has not been active and the associations have been requesting the implementation of this tool created according to the law “with the purpose of making transparent access to information on prices and availability of inputs, goods and services offered in the territory of the Nation and promote greater protection for consumers and users”.
The president of the Association for the Defense of User and Consumer Rights (Adduc), Osvaldo Bassano, told Télam that “the Price Observatory examines products and services from the moment they leave production until they reach the consumer” and recalled that “in In 2015 we discovered what the sale of the fruit was like, which continues to exist today.”
For his part, Claudio Boada, president of the Union of Users and Consumers, pointed out that “the objective of the observatory is the study of value chains over time, it is a study that does not have immediacy but is a medium-term process “.
Representatives of the Argentinean (ABA), Public and Private (Abapra), and Argentine (Adeba) banking associations, and the Specialized Banking Association (ABE), the Argentine Industrial Union ( UIA) and the Argentine Confederation of Medium Enterprises (CAME).
Leaders of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the Argentine Chamber of Wholesale Distributors and Self-Services (Cadam), the Chamber of Supermarkets (CAS), the Argentine Federation of Supermarkets and Self-Services (FASA) and the Association of United Supermarkets (Asociación de Supermercados Unidos) were also summoned. TO ITS).
On behalf of the government, officials from the Ministry of Commerce and the AFIP, among other departments, attended.
