MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Argentina rams ahead with imports rules: “it is understandable people are upset”
Acting president Boudou minimized criticisms from main partner Brazil The Argentine government ratified it won’t postpone the new legislation on imports as requested by local business leaders and minimized the current conflict with Brazilian industrialists who have bitterly complained about the new restrictions.
“It’s understandable that people are upset” the Vice President and acting-President Amado Boudou said on Monday during a brief press conference while on a political rally in the province of Buenos Aires.
He added that “the alleged differences in the bilateral trade relationship (with Brazil) are less than 6% of the total volume of transactions between both countries”.
The new Argentine measures makes it mandatory to fill an imports sworn statement, (DJAI) to be managed by the tax revenue office AFIP, and comes effective next February first. Some Argentine manufacturers fear bureaucratic delays could threaten a fluid supply of industry inputs.
Boudou praised trade levels between Argentina and Brazil which have “tripled” in the last few years and are over 30 billion dollars annually. “Both Governments have put in place policies of harmonic growth, articulating trade”.
However the picture from the Brazilian side is not that optimistic, last week Foreign Trade and Industry minister Fernando Pimentel publicly said contrary to political relations, “trade relations with Argentina are a permanent problem”. However Brazil would wait until March for any retaliatory measures, if needed.
Last Thursday Argentine Industry Minister Debora Giorgi said that “the trade balance reality between Argentina and Brazil does not warrant Pimentel's complaints”, adding that Argentina represented 19.5% of Brazil’s trade surplus in 2011, equivalent to 5.8 billion dollars.
Brazil’s powerful Sao Paulo Federation of Industries, FIESP warned that the new DJAI system to be implemented by Argentina could have “an impact on 80% of Brazilian exports”.
FIESP president Paulo Skaf has requested an appointment with President Cristina Fernandez to express his organization’s “concerns” and to propose amicable solutions to the controversy.
Fernando Bessa, a member of FIESP board’s said that “Argentina can’t continue to isolate itself from the world because it’s not an island” and emphasized the only way to compete in the world is through imports as input for goods manufactured by the domestic industry.
The head of the Argentine Industrial Union, José de Mendiguren also showed concern about the new scheme and said he hoped the import of foreign goods “did not hinge on subjective decisions”.
“What concerns us the most, are predictability and transparency. We need to know why a shipment is accepted or rejected,” De Mendiguren said, who once again asked the Government not to leave the fate of imported goods “up to the mood swings of a Government official”.
The DJAI scheme is complementary of the non automatic import licences which Argentina began implementing in March 2011 and delayed import dispatches by 60 days and caused several clashes between the neighbouring countries and senior Mercosur members.
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Read all comments2011 trade surplus was 10B, which puts Argentina on the cusp of collapse. Higher fuel prices, lower soy prices/crop, slowing car exports is having a dramatic affect on their currency exchange. CFK and her minions are going to do everything in their power to keep the trade balance positive. If it goes below 6B there will be a total system collapse.
Jan 24th, 2012 - 01:12 pm 0I think they want the GDP to slow to under 3.7% so that they don't have to pay their GDP growth linked bonds. It will save them some cash so slowing consumer demand through import restriction is deliberate but they probably don't realize that price increases for the remaining goods is inevitable.
They're starting to drop all the balls they have been juggling.
It should be fun to watch.
Wow, an american preoccupied with other countries' economic conditions and “waiting for the fun to watch”.
Jan 24th, 2012 - 06:32 pm 0I guess he's a 1% up in the former land of opportunity. A country that was 52% of world gdp in 1955, now down to 19%. Heck of a decline...
In the early twentieth century Argentina was a land full of promise and wealth. There was a genuine speculation about whether Argentina or the US would be the next economic power. We know how that turned out.
Jan 24th, 2012 - 06:48 pm 0Argentina will never be anything until it ditches the current government, moves into the 21st century and establishes a land without renowned corruption; where people can trust the government will not suppress the media, the right to protest and question the government, and a government that has long-term policies rather than the fire-fighting short-term mess it inflicts on the good people of Argentina. No one trusts Argentina, not even its close neighbours, and that will hinder any chance of it becoming a developed country.
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