After the Senate's stinging defeat of the president's polemic sliding-scale grain export scheme on Thursday (July 17, 2008), the government said on Friday (July 18, 2008) it will revoke the tax plan.

Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernandez said at a press conference the export duty on soy and other grains will return to levels set by a November resolution. Soy shipments are taxed at a fixed 35 percent rate, corn taxed at 25 percent and wheat at 28 percent under that resolution.

Farmers launched a series of crippling strikes since March to protest the variable tax scheme that raised the tax on soy exports to 44 percent, the country's leading crop. The strikes and roadblocks caused sporadic food shortages in the cities, shut down grain exports and disrupted transport across the country.

President Cristina Fernandez asked Congress to endorse the tax on June 17 after widespread protests in the cities by angry residents demanding an end to the dispute with farmers.

The House narrowly endorsed the bill, but an evenly split Senate saw Vice President Julio Cobos deliver a shock 'no' vote, rejecting the tax scheme.

"The conflict is over," Argentine Rural Society president Luciano Miguens announced in an interview with local news channel C5N directly following the Cabinet chief's announcement.