“Amparo dollar”, the exchange rate that importers pay to take action before justice

The foreign exchange market added another quote of the dollar. To the officer, the blue and the alternatives that are exchanged on the stock exchange –MEP and cash with settlement– it will be necessary to understand what one could call “Dollar protection”, that is, the one that arises from the legal claims that importers make to access foreign currency that the Government – be it the Secretary of Commerce or the Central Bank – They deny it in an ordinary way.

The protected dollar is therefore trading today between 5%, 10% and up to 20% above the official dollar. This increase is due to fee that the importer has to pay the lawyers who have done the legal process to get hold of the dollars. The level of the rates depends on variables such as the amount of the claim, the frequency of the presentations and the time required for the process.

In other words, if the wholesale exchange rate is at today 124 pesosthe “protected dollar” could fluctuate between 130 and 148 pesos. Of course, that extra cost in the dollar price translates into pricing.

In its Wednesday edition, Clarione reported that, forced by judicial protection, the Central Bank has been forced to sell in the past 15 months 1,847 million dollars. In taxes, no less than 92 million dollars.

A lawyer who specializes in this type of proceedings has found that an amparo can sue, between the initiation of the proceedings and the resolution -sale of dollars to the importer- at least two months, from the moment in which the first formal presentation is made, denouncing the delay in the sale of foreign currency, until the judge – of the federal contentious administrative jurisdiction – issues the amaro and orders the release of the foreign currency, subject to appeal by the corresponding public body .

A variable that defines the amount of commissions is whether these they are paid in dollars or pesosand what kind of exchange, the official one or one of the parallels.

The interesting thing about this “protected dollar” phenomenon is that maybe from now on legal demands increase if what everyone suspects is true: that the Government will try to limit access to foreign currency as much as possible in order to better defend the few actually existing reserves that are in the power of the Central Bank.

Clarin reported that the caps increased month after month, along with the exchange rate gap. They were out and about last year 500 presentations per month and today there are already nearly 1,000 companies in litigation, on a universe, which, according to the vice president’s reports, reaches almost 25,000 importers. They are only 4% of the total.

“There are few who show up, but those who do are having success,” he said. Marcelo Elizondoforeign trade specialist.

“The judges understand that the government does not have the authority to restrict an import activity that is not prohibited by law. The Constitution establishes the right to trade and injunctions are acknowledgments of the right to comply with the contract,” Elizondo stressed.