The application of new import tariffs of some laptop and tablet models has represented a new barrier to access for local consumers, who already had a limited offer due to the exchange rate which limits the importation of this equipment. A work of the Chamber of Commerce of Córdoba recorded price increases of 37.5% on average, out of ten of the models affected by the new tariff range, it was 0% until a week ago.
Decree 136/2023, published last Tuesday in the Official Gazette, established the rates for 8% and 16% for imported models of the big international brandswho have been paying 0% taxes since 2017 by decree of the Macri government.
The new decree, with the signature of the minister Sergio Massaestablishes that the provision has “the purpose of strengthening the industrial sector in question”, with reference to local companies that assemble laptop computers: Newsan, Exo, PC Arts (owner of Banghó), BGH positive and so on, mirgor.
To measure it was rejected almost immediately by the Chamber that brings together the companies of the Knowledge Economy, silverwithwhich stated that “this type of measure delay the development of our industries making their operations more expensive, affecting the training of talent and complicating the prospects for real growth in a sector that has great potential for immediate development”.
The camera appeared on the other sidewalk cadeelwho underlined that the new tariffs on notebooks “will allow not only the increase in the volumes of national productionbut rather the conditions and predictability that producers need to continue with their development plans and the constant creation of jobs for highly specialized personnel”.
from the camera CADMIPYAwho brings together wholesale computer distributors, understands instead that the price increases they have been happening for a long time and not because of the new tariffs, but because of inflation and especially because of import restrictions.
“The 180-day deferral to be able to pay for imports of products, added to the limitation of imports by the SIRA system, was already generating increases, even before the application of the new tariffs,” he said clarion a director of CADMIPyA, where some of the most important companies that assemble PCs in the country are grouped, such as Air Computers, Grupo Nucleo and PC ArtsMoreover.
In this context, the new imposition of tariffs for imported equipment, which have been exempt for almost six years, generated its own inflationary effect.
A study by the Córdoba Stock Exchange, prepared between the date before the reintroduction of import tariffs and 48 hours after the publication of Decree 136, found that The 10 best-selling notebook models on Mercado Libre they increased in price.
On average, the ten models increased by 37.5%, according to this survey by the Cordoba entity. Some have come in touch increments even 80%as in the case of two versions of HP and Lenovo branded notebooks.
Just those three “global” brands (the other is Dell) historically, They concentrate 80% of the laptop market.
“Not being able to access cheaper resources, which allow to increase efficiency and/or the adoption of technologies, the private sector loses competitiveness compared to the rest of the world”, concludes the work of the Córdoba Stock Exchange, which bears the signature of the economist Fabio Ventre.
CADMIPyA contributed another matter, in addition to the increase in prices: the progressive abandonment of buyers, as the products become more expensive in dollars. “There are adjustments that the market no longer assimilates and there are products that remain in stock“Added the director of this chamber.
The “fintech” entrepreneur Pierpaolo Barbieri, owner of Ualá, also intervened on the subject, who pointed out on Twitter that an inexpensive laptop, assembled in Mexico and sold in a Wal-Mart branch in the United States, today it is available for $200while the cheapest “home made” (sic) laptop trades at $380 MEP. “And that’s before the new tariffs,” Barbieri posted.
Source: Clarin
