Alberto Abad

The Head of the Federal Tax Revenue Agency (AFIP), Alberto Abad, and the US Ambassador, Lino Gutierrez, signed a cooperation agreement that included information exchange, identification, control and storage of high risk containers.

The positive trend in tax collection through to the end of the year is being consolidated," said tax agency head Alberto Abad.

June's data means tax revenues fell 9.6 percent for the six month January-June period year-on-year.For the full-year 2001, tax collection fell 7.5 percent compared with 2000, to $45.4 billion.

Argentina's woes forced the government to default on part of its $133 billion public debt and devalue the peso earlier this year after more than a decade of parity to the dollar, leaving the creaking economy virtually paralyzed.