MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lower export taxes on hake, squid and shrimp, as long as they are processed in Argentina

Decree 754/2021 intends to develop processing plants and create jobs at the different landing ports of catches

The Argentine government has issued Decree 754/2021 which lowers fisheries export taxes, particularly referred to hake, shrimp and squid as long as they are processed in the country including added value, to the benefit of Argentine industry and labor.

The decree comes ahead of the expiration of the two-year emergency bill 27.541, passed at the end of 2019, and inspired in Social Solidarity and Production Recovery, according to Fisheries Under Secretary Carlos D. Liberman, who added that the emphasis now is the promotion of exports and creation of jobs.

With the purpose of generating a major territorial presence, promote added value and boost employment, export taxes on hake, shrimp and squid, entirely processed in Argentina for final consumption and retail display in supermarkets, will benefit from a reduction of the tax to 1% and in the case of hake, processed and packaged in Argentina to zero.

“Our objective is to lower taxes in such a manner that we can promote fisheries products processed, elaborated and manufactured in Argentina with maximum input for Argentine jobs, and transform a primary extractive industry into a modern processing export industry with higher values, in line with instructions from Economy minister Martin Guzman and Agriculture minister Julian Dominguez” argued Liberman.

Apparently most of Argentine squid blocks are shipped to Peru and Vietnam where they were processed and classified, and later traded as prime products. .

Most of the export taxes on the three species, hake, shrimp and squid were in the range of 5% to 7%, and are now 1% or 0, such as hake filets and clean squid. The rates are based on Mercosur nomenclature.