Argentine President Javier Milei addressed the American Congress of the International Automobile Federation (FIA), hosted in Argentina for the first time in 15 years, using the occasion to outline his government's free-market economic philosophy and defend a series of recent policy changes affecting the automotive sector and road infrastructure.
Milei pointed to the Automóvil Club Argentino (ACA), founded in 1904 by 20 pioneers in Buenos Aires, as a historical model for private-sector organisation. He noted that as early as 1923, the ACA established its own topographical technical office to map routes and purchased Argentina's first road-maintenance machinery before any state body existed for that purpose. The club subsequently began opening service stations along new routes in 1936, and has grown from its original 20 members to more than 300,000 today.
On current policy, Milei said his government's elimination of the so-called "Impuesto País" and reductions in import tariffs on automobiles have brought price falls of nearly 30% in some segments of the new-car market. He connected these lower prices directly to road safety, noting that Argentina's vehicle fleet has an average age of almost 15 years — one of the oldest in the region — a situation he attributed to decades of artificially inflated prices under previous governments. Newer vehicles, he argued, carry superior safety features including airbags and anti-lock braking systems.
On road infrastructure, Milei said his government has already tendered concessions for the operation and maintenance of road corridors, with all of them set to be under construction from October. He added that further kilometres are to be tendered subsequently. He contrasted this private-concession model with what he described as the previous state-financed approach, which he said was funded through taxes or monetary emission, produced poor-quality results, and led to corruption convictions for around twenty officials from previous administrations, including a former president.
Milei also briefly referenced the same private-sector logic as applicable to freight, energy infrastructure, and port development, though without providing further detail on those areas in his remarks.
FIA President Ben Sulayem attended the congress — his first visit to Argentina in that capacity, having previously visited twice as a rally driver.
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