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Original article: Jorge Quiroz: El consultor de las colusiones que desinformó en Toronto sobre los impuestos canadienses impone su ley en Chile

By Leopoldo Lavín Mujica

The same Minister of Finance who provided false information (not just a metaphor) to 500 international investors in Toronto —misquoting the Canadian corporate tax rate to justify tax cuts for large Chilean companies— imposed his neoliberal legislative package on Congress in the early hours.

Past 5 AM on Thursday, May 14th, after a marathon session, the Finance Committee of the Chamber dispatched the government’s mega-project: Jorge Quiroz, the consultant whose «model» is referenced in the court rulings regarding chicken collusion and who stated before the TDLC that “there are no signs of collusion” in the pharmacy case, achieved what he set out to do.

The ruling party neutralized the so-called “tsunami” opposition strategy —around 2,000 amendments submitted to delay and rewrite the project— and the Committee, chaired by Republican deputy Agustín Romero, approved nearly all 50 articles of the initiative.

There were specific consensuses, such as the fund for areas affected by fires, which was approved unanimously, and fractures within the ruling party itself: the elimination of the Sence exemption and the reform to the Intellectual Property Law for artificial intelligence applications were rejected even with votes from government deputies.

However, the core of the project —tax cuts for companies, 25-year tax invariability for large investors, and environmental deregulation— moved forward unchanged. The man who used Canada as a scapegoat in Toronto now has his reform closer than ever.

The Curriculum Not Published by El Mercurio

Jorge Quiroz has spent three decades doing one thing: advising Chile’s largest companies when they have legal issues. Not with criminal law —that’s for others— but with competition law, tariff regulation, and the agencies that theoretically protect consumers.

His consultancy, Quiroz & Associates, is the go-to for companies needing an academic veneer from someone with a doctorate from Duke to gloss over what would otherwise be called, simply, cheating. The curriculum is notable for its coherence:

The Chickens. Between 1994 and 2010, Agrosuper, Ariztía, and Don Pollo colluded to divide the poultry market and fix prices at the cartel’s whim. The central mechanism was a demand projection model that determined how much each company should produce so that none would compete with the others. Jorge Quiroz designed that model, which industry insiders call, with astonishing lack of shame, «the Quiroz model.»

Emails obtained by the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office show cartel executives coordinating to «make small adjustments» to the model, working directly «with Jorge Quiroz’s office.» The TDLC condemned the companies, and the Supreme Court confirmed fines amounting to tens of millions of dollars. Chilean consumers paid more for chicken than they should have for sixteen years. A former executive from Don Pollo testified that quotas were defined “according to analyses made by Jorge Quiroz.”

No one went to jail: collusion had been decriminalized through an agreement between the Lagos government and big business. Coincidences of history.

The Pharmacies. Cruz Verde, Ahumada, and Salcobrand —which controlled 92% of the market— coordinated price increases on 206 medications: contraceptives, antibiotics, diabetes drugs, Parkinson’s medications.

Meanwhile, chronic patients paid more for their medicines, Quiroz testified before the TDLC as an expert for Salcobrand and assured, with all the authority of his doctorate, that “there are no signs of collusion in this market” and that what was observed was a “rather evident price rivalry.” The price coordination emails, which the court deemed direct evidence, did not seem to impress him. The TDLC condemned the companies nonetheless. Quiroz moved on to another client.

The Shipping Companies. The National Economic Prosecutor’s Office accused several companies of coordinating prices in the maritime transportation of automobiles. Quiroz prepared a report for Mitsui, the parent company of one of the accused. The Supreme Court ultimately imposed fines of 30 million dollars on the cartel. Quiroz passed to another client.

The Asphalt. A cartel among Enex, Asfaltos Chilenos, Química Latinoamericana, and Dynal to divide the market. Quiroz prepared reports in defense of Asfaltos Chilenos. The Supreme Court sanctioned the collusion. Quiroz moved to another client.

The pattern shows a remarkable regularity. Every time a large company in Chile was caught in a cartel, they knew who to call. Better call Quiroz.

In Toronto: The Lie in a Suit

In this context, the Toronto incident takes on a perfect logic. Before 500 representatives of the international financial world gathered at Chile Day 2026, Quiroz presented Canada as a model of low corporate taxation: a rate of 13%, he said, compared to Chile’s 27%.

The implicit conclusion was bright: if Canada operates with low corporate taxes and still has free healthcare and decent pensions, Chile can do the same by lowering the corporate tax rate from 27% to 23%.

The problem is that the information was false. The Canadian federal rate is 15%, not 13%. And that’s the least of it. When the provincial tax is added —which Quiroz omitted with the same elegance his clients employed to avoid mentioning cartel meetings— the combined rate in Ontario, where Toronto is located, reaches 26.5%. In British Columbia, it’s 27%, and in Quebec, it’s 26.5%. A large company in Toronto pays practically the same as a Chilean company today.

No one in the audience was unaware. They all applauded nonetheless. Because in that room, there were no chicken consumers or patients purchasing Parkinson’s medications. There were investors eager to hear that their taxes in Chile would decrease.

What Quiroz also didn’t mention —because it would ruin his argument— is that Canada finances its universal healthcare, public education, and decent pensions precisely because the rest of its tax system is radically more demanding than Chile’s: personal income tax with a maximum marginal rate exceeding 53% in Ontario, combined federal and provincial VAT of 13%, robust mandatory contributions.

Canada doesn’t have good public services despite taxes; it has them thanks to them. It just collects where there’s real money: from high-income individuals and businesses. That, naturally, was not part of the presentation.

A Government with Strong Business Interests

Quiroz doesn’t come alone to the Ministry of Finance. He arrives in a government where the chancellor is Francisco Pérez Mackenna, who served for 28 years as the General Manager of Quiñenco, the non-mining holding of the Luksic Group, one of the three largest fortunes in Chile. The man chaired the boards of CCU, Vapores, and Banco de Chile. He left the position on January 31, 2026, and took office as Minister on March 11.

The Luksic Group, for its part, has interests in sectors ranging from banking to mining, maritime transport, and railroads. The chancellor negotiating trade agreements and foreign policy is the same individual who, until recently, safeguarded those interests from the general management.

This is not a government captured by the business world. It’s a government where the business world has forwarded directly to the desk.

What Happened at 5 AM

At that hour, while most Chileans slept, the Finance Committee of the Chamber, led by Republican deputy Agustín Romero, dispatched the mega-project.

The reduction of the corporate tax from 27% to 23%. The 25-year tax invariability for investments over 50 million dollars, a legal guarantee that no future government can raise taxes on large investors, regardless of social urgencies. Environmental deregulation. All of that moved forward.

What did not progress, because even the ruling party rejected it, was the elimination of the Sence exemption —the instrument that allows companies to deduct training expenses from taxes— and the reform to the Intellectual Property Law to regulate the use of works in artificial intelligence. Small defeats that the government can tolerate. The core of the reform arrived intact for the next step.

The Autonomous Fiscal Council (CFE) warned that, without additional financing, the fiscal deficit is projected to continue until 2050. The IMF cautioned that the employment subsidy will cost 1.4 billion dollars annually. Both technical warnings remained in the commission’s report, which no one will read. What will remain, however, is the law. The same as that crafted by the collusion consultant, the man who lied in Toronto, the economist who has always known exactly for whom he works.

Leopoldo Lavín Mujica

La entrada Jorge Quiroz: Consultant Behind Collusions Misled Investors in Toronto about Canadian Taxes while Enforcing Neoliberal Laws in Chile se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.