MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina imposes new restrictions to slow consumer goods’ imports

The dreaded Guillermo Moreno tactics are now confirmed on paper

Argentina will impose new restrictions on consumer goods’ imports, according to a resolution from the Revenue Office published this week in the Official Gazette and effective next February first.

Under the denomination of Anticipated Imports Sworn Statement, importers must declare with sufficient anticipation the goods they wish to bring into the Argentine domestic market.

“The availability of anticipated strategic information” regarding imports “allows for a better articulation” among the different government offices, and thus “enhancing the results of an integral fiscal monitoring”, says the resolution.

Under the new system importers need to make an anticipated sworn statement of planned imports “previous to the issuing of the request, purchase order or similar document used for completing overseas purchasing operations”.

Since the start of the international economic crisis in 2008, Argentina has implemented different trade mechanisms to safeguard domestic production such as the need of non automatic import licences and agreements in several sectors considered strategic such as the auto and pharmaceutical industries, to help balance imports with exports, or the so called one-for-one dollar import-export.

Argentina was also behind the agreement reached in the last Mercosur summit in Montevideo which allows member countries to temporarily increase import tariffs on certain items as a safeguard against the impact of the global crisis in world trade.

Other methods used by the Cristina Fernandez administration to counter imports are simply the ‘non-written’ orders or ‘suggestions’ from Guillermo Moreno, the notorious and dreaded Domestic Trade minister, famous for his bullying tactics.

The last of which was a meeting he convened at his office with the supermarket chains to ‘suggest’ them their companies abstain from importing those consumer goods and items of which there is available Argentine production.

The mere fact he was confirmed by President Cristina Fernandez in her new cabinet and has been repeatedly praised for his ‘unorthodox’ determination in complying with his responsibilities in ‘an utmost loyal way’, needs no further explanation.

Moreno has also been instrumental in helping the Argentine Stats office, Indec, elaborate consumer inflation indexes, month after month, that in a calendar year remain below one digit even when all private consultants estimate the true index is above 23%.

According to the latest available data, between last January and November, Argentine imports totalled 67.993 billion dollars, having soared 33% over 2010.

In the same period Argentina exports reached 78 billion dollars, with an increase of 25%, which is a lower rate than that of imports.