The Ministry of Economy, which heads Sergio Massaheld meetings with the main business chambers of the country in response to “urgency” requests in imports. They study making international freight payments more flexible, lowering the terms of access to foreign currency when the order is made in yuan and increasing the dollar advance for SMEs. However, despite the claim of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA)the suspension of antidumping duties that protected the industry will be maintained, due to the increases observed in local prices.
The claims for the low that are made within the business chambers began to be made public in the last hours, given the “urgency” raised by the private sector. Thursday of last week 15 business chambers who meet in emergencies in foreign trade had their first meeting of the year at the Customs Brokers Center (ADC). It’s a statement They asked to be received by the small table of the Ministry of Economy that defines the SIRA importer system.
The call was not long in coming. This Tuesday, the head of Customs, Guillermo Michel, received a handful of cameras, among which were the CDA, the Chamber of Exporters (CERA) and the Association of International Freight Agents (AAACI). He main claim of the chambers was due to the measure of the Central Bank that established that the freight payment it takes place after 90 days, and with prior authorization from the importer scheme called SIRASE.
Private sector and Customs sources confirmed that Michel assured that he “will study” making the criteria more flexible. However, one of those present at the meeting assured that he surprised everyone when he stated: “We are going to study it, when some stop stealing the dollars”. Without mentioning it, he was referring to one of the world’s leading shipping companies. In an official report they made, while freight payments fell in the world, they increased in Argentina, and Customs is suspicious of the classic about invoicing in times of gap. At the moment, Customs will not prosecute it until it receives data that it requested from other customs around the world.
However, before making progress in making the measure more flexible, Michel asked the entities for information on the freight, maritime and land market, in the traffic of the main routes and ports. “It is to be expected that they comply with this request,” said an important business union. Meanwhile, from Customs they added that what they are looking for is to get a “price matrix” of the shipping companies, to have ranks and that none is above. “As is happening today with a specific one,” commented senior Customs sources.
Due to the same problem linked to foreign trade, this Tuesday both Michel and the Secretary of Domestic and Foreign Trade, Matías Tombolini, visited the UIA headquarters in Buenos Aires. In addition to freight, industrialists complained about the payment termswhich in some cases became 365 daysas in capital goods. One of the answers is that the extension of free availability of yuan It will allow some flexibility. When SIRAs are issued in Chinese currency, the $50,000 advance could be raised. Besides, they could cut the deadlines in half: 90 days for large companies, and 45 days for medium-sized ones.
According to official sources, they hope to use the entire US$10 billion (the equivalent in yuan) both for trade with China “and with other countries that accept it” and for the payment of commercial debt. Only in May there were approvals for US$1 billion in yuan, official sources commented.
Finally, there is a claim of the UIA in which the Government will not advance. After receiving the officials, the UIA said in a statement that “sectors such as the chemical sector expressed their concern about the suspension of anti-dumping measures, a method of legitimate defense of the competition of the WTO”. Last week, Economy suspended import tariffs for antidumping duties on eight products, for investigating that the companies that produce them locally had extraordinary price increases. Ámbito officially consulted if they will put the tariffs back, as the industry claims: “Let prices drop first,” they replied. In fact, they are studying adding more items to the list to increase competition and achieve lower prices.
Source: Ambito
