The national government eliminated export duties, commonly known as withholdings, for some agro-industrial products. At the same time, they reduced by 25% the charges that fell on different meat chains such as beef, poultry, among others.
The decision became effective through the publication of Decree 697/2024 in the Official bulletin and covers products in the cow category, except for live animals, whose coding is A, B, C, D and E, and products in the pork chain. All this aims to provide the sector with a greater competitiveness and boost international projection for products in high global demand.
The decree includes the definitive elimination of export duties on dairy productsa tax that ranged between 4.5% and 9%. Until the publication of the regulations, this tax was temporarily suspended until June 2025. Now, after its elimination, it is expected that the industry’s processes will have greater predictability to increase their productivity and investments.
Along the same lines, A 25% reduction in withholdings was implemented for all animal proteinswhose current rate is between 4.5% and 9%. For the Government, animal proteins constitute an added value at source to grains and have a massive federal impact, since the products covered by this decree are produced in all the provinces of our country.
As indicated in the recital, one of the objectives of this measure is, on the one hand, “to ensure the maximum possible added value in the country in order to obtain an adequate income for national work” and, on the other, “to promote, protect or conserve national productive activities of goods or services, as well as said goods and services, natural resources or animal or plant species”. Both are one of the central points of the Customs Code.
What is the purpose of this change in withholdings?
They also pointed out that “the measure pursues the objective of Promote an increase in sales to foreign markets, improve the income level of producers and processorsas well as its interaction network, strengthen the roots and permanence of the rural population in each region of the country, in addition to promoting the improvement of the quality of the products.”
This decision is part of a process of deregulation, lowering tariffs on agricultural inputs, opening international markets and simplifying procedures in commercial control. Consequently, the Government stated that it is committed to removing the weight of the State from the shoulders of agricultural production, which It registers 1.2 million jobs and is responsible for 63% of the total products exported by Argentina..
According to reports, last year 25% of the export duties levied on these categories amounted to more than USD 70 million.
In this context, the decree states that “a gradual but constant year-on-year growth was evident in the Export volumes of dairy products “Despite having lower average export prices than previous months, showing that the possibility of completing operations has increased, with greater protection from fluctuations in the international price.” “The improvement in the exchange rate as of December 2023 drove and accompanied the aforementioned growth, highlighting a positive impact on the improvement in the price paid to the producer and in the profitability of the average dairy farm, which has been on a positive trend in recent months, with values that have not been recorded since March 2020,” the Government added to its arguments.
Source: Ambito
