The validity of this law is temporarily delayed (but not annulled) by means of: Savings in the costs of raw materials and materials; technical progress; the increase in labor productivity; the drop in real wages; Unemployment; the setting of high prices by their creators, inflation; the unequal development of the productive forces, the lack of equivalence in foreign trade and the export of capital to other countries through direct foreign investment, portfolio investment, financial derivatives and the granting of loans (Foreign Debt).
Economic dependence causes a substantial transfer of value abroad, through legal and illegalin concepts such as:
Payments of the External debt: The situation of debt maturities with multilateral and bilateral organizations represented 17% of GDP, according to the Ministry of Economy. But, before the refinancing agreementin 2022 Argentina had to pay the IMF 19,000 million dollars, in 2023 others 20,000 million and in 2024 some 4 billion more. There was also in March of that year an expiration for 2,000 million dollars with the Paris Club. (1)
These amounts were subsequently refinanced, but, with or without agreement, the problem remains, and they mean enormous amounts paid and to be paid, at one time or another, that are transferred abroad.-
The foreign debt amounted to 274,837 mill. of U$D.- as of 06/30/22.
GDP is the value of wealth (goods and services) generated in the country in one year. The external debt is equivalent to 45.78% of the GDP.- (16)
GDP= $78,037,876 mill. / 130 (pesos per dollar) = U$D 600,291 mill.(two). Debt/GDP = (274,837 USD x 100) / 600,291 USD = 45.78% (16)
Referrals abroad from the subsidiaries of foreign companies, of: profits, royalties, commissions and interest: The year 2021 left a deficit balance of -9,818 million of USD for Investment Income (interest, dividends and profits).- (2)
Formation of External Assetscommonly called “Capital flight”: 94,719 million of USD they escaped during the years 2015-2019.- (3)
Annual payments for: freight, insurance and commissions by maritime transport and ports that were privatized: 3,705 million of USD in 2021.- (4)
Manipulation of transfer prices in foreign trade between parent companies and subsidiaries of foreign or related companies (transfer prices): For example, 1,250 million of USD they were the result of 13,640 triangulation operations of 722 companies.- (5). The goal is to make profits appear in tax havens where taxes are minimal or non-existent. Y with the same objective are made…
Maneuvers of over and under billing: They consist of under-valuing exports (declared price lower than the real one) to pay a lower retention (export duty) and/or over-valuing imports (declared price higher than the real one) to obtain a higher amount of dollars to pay it . It is estimated that it amounts to 25% to 30% of total exports.- Jaime Fuchs – Argentine capitalism – P. 145. An example: According to a complaint of under-invoicing of lithium exports by a mining company in Catamarca, in 403 operations, declaring 5,100 USD per TN with a real price of 16,000 USD per TN.- The difference in FOB value It amounts to 168 million of USD.- (6)
Paraná-Paraguay Waterway: According to a report by the Argentine Institute for Economic Development, despite this great development of agro-export trade in recent years, a not insignificant percentage of what is exported in Argentina is not declared: “Only in 2020, the total difference between the value declared at the exit of the Argentine customs and the value declared at the entrance of the destination customs adds up to $896 million ”. (7).-
Said report estimates that between 2011 and 2020 the State lost revenue 10 billion dollars for maneuvers in the waterway. (7).-
waterway.jpeg
The terms of trade: It is the ratio of export prices to import prices. Value indices and quantities are also calculated. This relationship was -0.7% in 2019; 0.6% in 2020; of 9.7% in 2021 and 1.2% for the first half of 2022. These periodic cycles, in the downward phases, cause transfers of value abroad that force having to export a greater quantity of goods to continue importing what same as before. This was the case in 2019, where export prices fell more than import prices. In the hypothetical case that in the second quarter of 2022 the prices of the same quarter of the previous year had prevailed, the trade balance would have shown a surplus of 1,598 million dollars. Under this assumption, and given the -1.1% drop in the Index, the country recorded a loss in the terms of trade of 219 million dollars = 1,379 – 1,598 mill. of U$D.- (8)
Damages due to exploitation and extractivism of Natural Resources: For being incorporated into large foreign companies or with a dominant share in the capital of joint ventures that allows them to have control and decision-making power over their operations in the market (in the sectors of greatest strategic importance), driven by their logic and necessity having to permanently increase capital and reproduce it on an enlarged scale, deepen environmental problems due to: deforestation, use of agro-toxics, overfishing, mega-mining, use of energy from fossil fuels, irrational use of water, and levels of overconsumption of goods and resources above the carrying capacity of the ecosystem. According to the International Consultant Accenture, climate change was ranked eighth in the ranking of priorities of business leaders. (9)
“Brain drain”: Exodus abroad of qualified technicians and professionals after having received free education and training for years in public-state schools, colleges and universities. According to OECD in the period 2015-2017 they emigrated 222,000 professionals, technicians, etc. Argentines.- (10)
Substitution of products, mergers, absorptions and denationalization of companies: for imported goods (closures and denationalizations). The import fever: On a sample of 40 companies, there were 24,505 fewer companies from 12/2015 to 12/2019.- Example: Thousands of Argentines going to buy clothes and appliances in Chile in those years marked a stage of the economic cycle, which ended with the general flight of national and foreign capital. (eleven)
“In recent years, the main acquisitions of national companies by, fundamentally, Brazilian companies, were the following: Petrobras bought the oil companies controlled by Pérez Companc; Am Bev bought the Quilmes brewery; Camargo Correa bought Loma Negra and its associates; Arcelor bought Acindar; Friboi bought the Swift Armor refrigerator; Marfrig bought Estancias del Sur (thousands of hectares) and the companies Best Beef-Vivoratá, Quickfood and Mirab”. (12)
Another example is Supermarkets – Hypermarket North, of national origin, which was acquired by the Exxel Group and later sold to Carrefour (multinational distribution chain of French origin)..- (13)
“Between 1991 and 2000, of the 500 largest companies in Argentina, a total of 198 companies changed hands, of which 71% (141) were national companies that were sold mainly to foreign capital (112) and, in to a much lesser extent (29), were acquired by capital from the country itself”. (13).-
Capital is increasingly concentrated in fewer hands and, moreover, is denationalized, deepening dependency.
car loans: “The AFIP investigates a series of fictitious loan maneuvers that large companies would be using to avoid paying the Income Tax and access the foreign exchange market. In the last hours, they detected the case of a leading multinational in the mining sector that had tried to deduct more than $2,500 million for exchange differences and interest on an alleged loan that a related firm would have granted it. The DGI made an adjustment for more than $2,500 million in Income Tax. The AFIP determined that a credit declared by the firm did not constitute indebtedness but rather a capital contribution. The company in question belongs to the group of 222 firms that represent a third of the universe of the most important taxpayers in the country and that their affidavits for income tax for the period 2021 were presented with an amount of $0. (14)
Foreign Assets: Includes the international reserves of the Central Bank, direct investments and credits of the private sector abroad (shares, debt securities, bank deposits). If we exclude BCRA reserves from that amount, the balance would be $376,771 mill. for direct investments and credits of residents (Argentines) abroad: ).Total US$419,558 mill. less US$42,787 million reserves = 376,771 mill. of U$D). (fifteen).
In a detailed proposal in a previous article published in this space (17), it said: “These problems cannot be solved unless the causes that originate them are removed, through a profound change in the current economic and social structure on the basis of conquering the power of national decision, towards a new model of economic, social, political development. and culturally independent.
Public Accountant – Professor of Economics. UTN-UNER-UADER-ISFD
Sources:
(1)https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/vencimientos-de-deuda-en-2022-pulsan-a-argentina-y-al-IMF-por-un-acuerdo/47299404.- 01/27/2022.-
(two) Indec – Acct. International – ECB. of Payments.- 2nd. Trim. 2022
(3) The Rocket to the Moon – BCRA.- 11/22/20.- Plus 4,009 mill. of U$D between the years 2020-21 and the 1st. Semester of 2022.
(4) Indec – Acct. International.- Transportation category.- Table 4.- 2nd. Trim. 2022
(5) Afip-Customs-Michel – El Dia de Gualeguaychú newspaper.- 08/05/22.-
(6) Financial sphere – Section Policy 07/11/22.-
(7) Ecoportalnet.- Page 12 – 06/04/2021.-
(8) Indec 2nd. Quarter of 2022.-
(9) Ecoportal 02/06/2008.-
(10) Latin American Summary.- 12/11/21.-
(eleven) Page 12 of 09/11/21.-
(12) Jaime Fuchs – Argentine capitalism – Translatinas – p. 148.-
(13) Wikipedia.- (13) Duarte Marisa and Rocca Claudio: The withdrawal of capital – IADE – Economic Reality No. 297 – p. 46 – 2016.-
(14) Financial sphere – Evasion and curl – Economy 08/29/22.-
(15) Indec – Balance of payments, international investment position and external debt – 2nd Quarter of 2022.-
(16) Own elaboration based on Indec – 2nd. Trim. 2022.- BNA quote 06/30/22.-
(17) (https://www.iade.org.ar/noticias/la-inflación-en-argentina-una-opinión)Financial Field – maximaonline.-
Source: Ambito
