The Ministry of Economy highlighted the improvements in foreign trade in general and bilateral trade with the United States in particular, from the implementation of the System of Imports of the Argentine Republic (SIRA) and the System of Imports of the Argentine Republic and Payments of Foreign Services (Sirase).
This was stated by the undersecretary of Trade Policy and Management, Germán Cervantes, in a meeting with representatives of the United States Chamber of Commerce in Argentina (AmCham).
The entity described the meeting as “important” and “highly valued by our partners because they have the opportunity to learn about the import policies for goods and services,” according to what was expressed by its CEO, Alejandro Diaz.
Before the main member companies of the Chamber, Cervantes presented a management report on SIRA and Sirase during the period from October 2022 to February 2023, and highlighted that in this period “11% more dollars were authorized compared to the same period of the previous year and received 34% more applications compared to the same period”.
He also pointed out that the level of authorizations has increased, being those of February 90% of the total requests.
AmCham highlighted that “in the last quarter of 2022, 16,029 companies managed to import US$ 16,332 million,” while “another 3,054 companies, with an imported amount of US$ 10,104 million, managed to export for US$ 17,397 million, generating US$ 7,831 million of trade surplus for the last three months of 2022”.
Meanwhile, Cervantes said that the idea of the meeting is to be able to see “how the process has developed throughout these four months, have clear figures on the system, provide information that helps clarify the mechanics of imports and achieve the best way of working in coordination with the private sector”.
He also highlighted that, “with the joint work between the Ministry of Economy, the Secretariat of Commerce and the SIRA Committee”, it was possible to achieve “a much more transparent system that allowed us to obtain a surplus”, in addition to having “effective control of imports and access to the MULC (Single and Free Exchange Market)”.
“That was thanks to the creation of a checking account and an audit in real time, through the new SIRAs system,” added the official.
The undersecretary indicated that the system launched in October of last year “was ordered over time” and stated that, currently, “there is an average of a month and a half in approval of SIRAs that have not yet been imported.”
“Although some sectors will have their more specific demand, today the System is strengthened,” he stated.
For his part, Díaz conveyed AmCham’s “will” to “give a message of predictability to each actor, as well as the need for companies to have access to basic inputs to be able to continue with their local production and what this situation means implies when it comes to positioning Argentine products both in the local and international markets”.
“That is why we have been working together to achieve the challenge of sustainable development for our country,” the executive concluded.
Source: Ambito
