Brazilian truck drivers were protesting high diesel prices for a fourth day this week on Thursday. The truckers don’t plan to quit with blockades until measures to reduce fuel taxes are enshrined in the official gazette.
Protests have been crippling highways across the nation. Brazil’s lower house of Congress voted to reduce taxes on diesel. The Senate has yet to vote on tax cuts that truckers say are needed before they’ll end the protests that threaten grain exports, industrial output, and even fuel supply at airports and gasoline stations.
The state-run oil company announced a temporary ten-percent diesel price cut at the refinery. However, the head of a trucker’s group says that move isn’t sufficient. The truckers’ group, which is known as ABCAM, says the move isn’t sufficient because the cuts only last 15 days. After that, the company returns to setting domestic prices based on international oil prices.
Even if the price cuts truckers are looking for get passed, it will still likely take several days to normalize cargo deliveries in the country when demonstrations come to an end. As of Friday, a Bloomberg report says the largest port in Brazil is running out of soybeans.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.