In FOB amounts (includes freight costs and other charges), it is about at least US$1.8 billion according to the collected cases. The sectors that top the list of approvals are: clothing, with 35% of the precautionary measures released in 2022, followed by toys with 15% and tires with 10%. Then appear, with less relevance, categories such as electronics, bazaar items, taps and furniture.
Operative
In the vast majority of cases, they are merely importing firms that do not produce in the country and are dedicated to marketing final goods that have non-automatic licenses, that is, they should go through the monitoring carried out by the Ministry of Productive Development. To circumvent these controls, they resort to the mechanism that Ámbito baptized weeks ago as the “judicial loop”: importers go to court and resort to multiple draws until the claim reaches “friendly” courts.
As explained in the Government, the great attraction of this route is based on its low cost: “Unlike the extensive judicial processes that can take years, the precautionary imports are resolved in a few months. The legal fees are paid against the result and once the result is obtained, the importer disregards the process, leaving it to be filed without resolving the substantive issue”. At the same time, they warn that there are “forum shopping” maneuvers and they point out that there are at least two courts, number 6 and 8, of the federal contentious administrative jurisdiction that systematically rule in favor of importers. The latter, in charge of Judge Cecilia Gilardi Madariaga de Negre, author of the ruling that, as reported by this medium last week, gave rise to the unusual mechanism of rental of precautionary.
From the consultation site of the Judicial Branch of the Nation there are cases that are striking, such as that of the company BARPLA SA, which on December 22 held 12 consecutive draws until obtaining Court 8, where it finally presented its claim and obtained its precautionary . To illustrate the insistence of the importers, it is enough to cite file 1246/2021, where the judge should have warned the firm Caffaro Hnos. SRL that the imports on which the precautionary measure was requested had already obtained an unfavorable sentence in another court.
Impact on the industry
Industrialists are concerned about the growth of imports through this route. Especially in the current context. While there are various limitations to access the Single Free Exchange Market when buying supplies, importers quickly access the official dollar, without limitations on the amounts granted and without having to finance themselves for 180 days.
The case of tires it is paradigmatic. According to industry sources, the market reached one million units in June, of which some 500,000 were manufactured by companies that produce in the country. The other half is explained by imports. Of this universe, 25% of the merchandise was managed directly by the automakers and 23% by marketing companies, both through non-automatic licenses, in the traditional way. But 52% of everything imported came through precautionary measures granted by the Justice, more than 250,000 tires in just one month.
The merchandise that enters through this route skips the entire control process. In other words, it does not need to comply with any of the regulations in force: technical tests, declaration of product composition, foreign exchange regulations. In short, you are not required to comply with any of the requirements that business administration entails.
From the textile sector they expressed their concern about this point and stressed that it is unfair competition. “The entire chain has been making record investments and now we find ourselves in this situation. Through injunctions they flood the market bypassing all regulations and we have difficulties importing dyes that are obviously cheaper than the finished garment and are not manufactured in the country”, they explained.
in the toy industrythe chamber that brings together the manufacturers warned that Between January and June 2022, imports grew by 15% year-on-year, but purchases by those who did so through precautionary measures rose by 48%. The industrialists denounce practices of overinvoicing and point out that “the judicial measures were granted en masse without analyzing the values of the merchandise or the background of the importers.”
little effective
It is striking that Justice, through a discretionary precautionary system, de facto manages trade. But the harmful effects that these practices bring to the economy are even more worrying. In the first place, the outflow of foreign currency destined for items that could be supplied by the national industry in a context of shortage of dollars that exceeded US$ 1,800 million.
Secondly, those who access the precautionary ones bring the merchandise with the cost of the official dollar, but sell it at the price of the parallel. This is indicated by the various testimonies that Ámbito was able to collect, as well as the INDEC data. According to the official institute, the category of clothing and footwear comfortably leads the increases within the consumer price index. Despite the flood of imports through precautionary measures, the year-on-year increases reached 83.6% in this category.
Source: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
