The Government pressures the super to apply the French model of discount of the shopping cart

Moncloa has taken note of the agreement reached in France between the Government of Emmanuel Macron and the large food distributors to lower the price of a series of basic products in the shopping cart. A voluntary measure to combat inflation in which the economic vice president, Nadia Calviño, has taken an interest. So much so that this Tuesday she planned to contact her French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, to ask him for technical information about the agreement, as confirmed by his environment. Prior to this call, Calviño already assured in a press conference after the Council of Ministers that it will be the line to follow. “We assume that those multinational groups that have a presence in Spain, andThey will extend any trade policy that may benefit citizens“, he declared.

Executive sources reinforce this position by questioning the fact that firms with a presence in both countries “do one thing with French clients and another with Spanish ones.” The same sources stress that it is a voluntary measure, so the final decision corresponds to the supermarkets, but stressing that if they apply it in France, it would be logical for them to do the same in Spain. “They will have to extend it,” sources from the socialist part of the government agree, by way of pressure. Despite this, noor a formal proposal is being made for the moment to seek an agreement follow the French model.

From the Government they explain that the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, is in constant contact with all the actors in the food chain, slipping that this issue could be addressed in future meetings. Along these lines, they add that he has held meetings with the entire food chain focused on “containing the price of food.” The head of Agriculture already opened the way this Monday with an appeal to the distributors that operate in Spain to adopt “a similar measure” to the French one. Always within the business margin of the companies, Planas encouraged them to look at a measure that would fit “perfectly”, as he said, in a sector “mature and competitive like the Spanish”.

Yolanda Díaz has been pressing since the summer to implement a similar measure. After the agreement in France, she urges them to take action on the matter

Who has increased the pressure within the Executive to go from words to deeds, with a more proactive position to seek an agreement that lowers the price of the shopping basket, has been Yolanda Díaz. The second vice president has been pushing for a measure of these characteristics since last summer and after the agreement implemented in France she has urged them to take action on the matter because “Not only is it possible, but it is essential”. Díaz has also held bilateral meetings with the large distributors and considers the abolition of VAT on basic products with a super-reduced rate of 4% and from 10 to 5% only in the case of pasta and oils insufficient, and proposes to go further ” sooner”.

Within the framework of these conversations, the second vice president dropped the possibility of resorting to the Article 13 of the Retail Trade Regulation Law. In this, the exceptions are determined by which the Government can set the prices or marketing margins of certain products. “Article 13 of the law is there”, explain the same sources from their closest environment, to conclude that, in the face of its application, limiting prices on a list of selected staple foods is considered more appropriateagreed with the distributors and adopted voluntarily.

Unidas Podemos and other partners demand that the PSOE already bump into the shopping cart as in France

EFE

A message that indirectly is also addressed to the first vice president for the supposed passivity attributed to him in this matter, trying to value the will to seek agreements with the distributors despite having tougher elements such as intervention. From the socialist part of the Government, they have always rejected any possibility of capping prices, considering that it goes against the laws of the free market.

The Minister of Agriculture limited himself to requesting an “effort” from the industry so that they reflect more realistically in the prices paid by consumers the positive evolution of costs at origin. This was his request at the extraordinary meeting of the Food Chain Observatory, held last January. Of course, from the Government the distributors were warned that they would be watchman of the translation in the finalist prices of the reduction of the costs. “We are going to be vigilant and follow up. I hope it is fulfilled,” Planas concluded then. This Tuesday, the economic vice president was in favor of large supermarkets making their profit margins public. “All the elements that show transparency are positive”he concluded.

This is how the basic shopping basket in supermarkets has risen in February despite the drop in VAT

Europe Press

The French initiative has reopened the debate within the Government on measures to combat inflation in food. On the table is still the option of extend the VAT reduction to meat and fishlocated at 10%, while from Podemos they claim to discount 14.4% of the shopping cart.

In the Executive they trust to have extra spending to finance new social measures from the month of April. Based on the collection and deficit data for the 2022 financial year, the scope of an upcoming anti-crisis package will be defined. According to Moncloa sources, an increase is expected to be able to extend initiatives now in force that expire in June or advancing new ones depending on the situation. The Government thus intends to resume the initiative after a few fateful weeks due to the reform of the law of the only yes is yes and the resulting crisis between the partners, but reserving the most attractive measures for the pre-campaign of the municipal and regional elections on May 28.

Moncloa has taken note of the agreement reached in France between the Government of Emmanuel Macron and the large food distributors to lower the price of a series of basic products in the shopping cart. A voluntary measure to combat inflation in which the economic vice president, Nadia Calviño, has taken an interest. So much so that this Tuesday she planned to contact her French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, to ask him for technical information about the agreement, as confirmed by his environment. Prior to this call, Calviño already assured in a press conference after the Council of Ministers that it will be the line to follow. “We assume that those multinational groups that have a presence in Spain, andThey will extend any trade policy that may benefit citizens“, he declared.