The figure corresponds to the update of the survey by the Union of Exporters of Uruguay, and is double what was calculated in January.
The debt that Argentine importers maintain with Uruguayan exporters would have already amounted to 200 million dollars, according to the latest survey carried out by the Union of Exporters of Uruguay (UEU). At the end of February, from Chamber of Industries of Uruguay (CIU) They had calculated an amount owed by the neighboring country of 100 million dollars.
The issue of the debt that Argentine importers maintain with the local productive and industrial sector continues to be one of the great problems for exporters that, apparently, far from being resolved, continues to deepen. This, even despite the measures implemented by the government of Javier Milei, who decided to replace the Import System of the Argentine Republic (SIRA) for him Import Statistical System (SEDI)something highlighted by local businessmen for its contribution to greater speed and automation in exchanges.
However, the debt continues to grow. Already at the end of 2023, both the UEU and the CIU had estimated a commercial debt between 15 and 30 million dollars from the Argentines to the Uruguayans; At the end of January, meanwhile, it was already around 100 million dollars.
According to the president of the Exporters Union, Facundo Marquez, The update of the last survey recorded that the debt is already 200 million dollars, a figure that implies “a lot of money” for Uruguay, as expressed by the head of the union to El Espectador. The significant jump from one estimate to another would be due to the fact that not all companies want to say how much money they are owed, so the data was collected “very little by little.”
In that sense, Márquez assured that they are following the issue together with the authorities of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), Chancellery and the Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU). This had also been pointed out by the president of the CIU, Fernando Pache, Although both union leaders agree that, no matter how much official willingness there is to help, the problem is still a matter of negotiations between private parties.
“We are working to see how we can gradually collect this debt, which is enormous,” said Márquez.
Smaller exchange gap
Consulted by Telemundo regarding the situation of smuggling on the border and consumption diversion toward Argentina, generated by the exchange difference between both countries, the president of the CIU, Fernando Pache, pointed out that it is a problem that also existed with the neighboring country that has been declining.
“By not having such an important difference between the official dollar and the parallel dollar, and the giant inflation that they have around more than 10% monthly, has leveled out at this moment, not at 100% and not in all areas, but it has leveled prices a little with Uruguay”, said the president of the CIU.
“That gives us the expectation and hope that this next semester the sales on the coast recover around 10% or 20%. “We lost almost 40% of sales during 2022 and 2023 in that area of the country,” he added.
Source: Ambito
