Concluded on short spring opened by the “soybean dollar”the government immediately carried out its plan “take care” of currencies. In the last few hours it has expanded the list of imported goods that must be authorized and started a “real” one to have a systematic following of foreign trade. The measures, which are the prelude to the new import regime that would be launched this Thursday, were met with uncertainty in industry.
Major industry chambers, such as the UIA, remained silent throughout the day, waiting for their technical teams to prepare a report on the Resolution 26. This regulation included 2,745 products subject to non-automatic import licensesso from this Wednesday some 4,600 out of a total of 10,000 positions the tariffs will require the approval of the Secretary of Commerce, led by Matías Tombolini.
As the government had predicted, the controls fell final or consumer goods such as golf clubs, skis, pressure washers or lighters. But they also included a good amount of supplies, tools and industrial machines. “Until tomorrow we will not meet with the members’ chambers, it does not seem prudent to go out,” they said at the factory headquarters, where they acknowledged that the changes will involve “more paperwork”.
There are doubts, for example, about those goods that can be used for different purposes depending on the sector. A member of the UIA was perplexed about the paint containers, a product that can be definitive for those who make it, but it can also be an input or an intermediate good for companies that require it in their production to fill it with paint. The same with packaging or plastic.
For now Sergio Massa seems to have listened to Cristina Kirchner when in June she reported a “import party”. Since then, the government has further tightened the barrier. First of all, the Central Bank with the extension of payments to 180 days for all imports, a measure promoted by Martín Guzmán to reach the reserve target with the IMF. And now, on the eve of a busy December, the Minister of Economy has given another turning point.
In his team, they acknowledge that the new turnstile has been discussed with several cameras and has even garnered support. In the metallurgical industry, for example, the measure represents a kind of protection against competition foreign machine tools. “There are a large number of locations that correspond to locally manufactured products, so it benefits us,” say ADIMRA sources.
On the other hand, the producers of complex capital goods in the oil sector, who need to import parts, would have the opportunity to resolve these cases before the Tombolini area, which responds directly to Massa. But metallurgical companies know that some positions correspond to inputs necessary to produce in the sector and, in that case, “it touches them”. The unknown is what its effect on activity will be.
The resolution would also add restrictions on construction assets (central heating boilers, bulldozers, graders, excavators, cranes), the textile and clothing sector (yarns and fabrics), the shipbuilding industry (ship engines and boilers), the automotive industry (turbines or car engines) and industry in general (pumps, compressors, lathes, scales). In most of the sectors consulted, however, possible repercussions are excluded.
The government decided to anticipate purchases from abroad with the diagnosis that the exchange rate gap encouraged excessive billing of purchases from abroad and judicial injunctions by some “living”. According to foreign trade sources, non-automatic licensed imports accounted for $ 17 trillion, nearly 30 percent of total operations for $ 64 trillion in the first nine months of the year. In 2021 they were 12%.
Source: Clarin
