The new restrictions will increase legal safeguards to unblock imports

In the first months of this year, the justice system allowed more than 1000 shelters presented by importers to unblock their operations. With the new restrictions placed by the government this week, they are warning him more complaints will be generated through the courts, even if the chances of obtaining favorable results are uncertain.

“What we are seeing is a horror movie”says Gabriel Hermida, Tax partner of Auren Argentina, who closely follows the complexities of the import circuit.

Importers seeking to enter products that have been “vetoed” by the government in a context of dollar scarcity in the face of growing demand can go to the courts to find shelter which allows them to bypass the filter of the Comprehensive Import Monitoring System (SIMI), the tool with which the entry of goods into the country is monitored and with which the government opens and closes the tap of these operations.

Obtaining the SIMI is the first step to finalize the operation. The second is that the Central Bank frees up access to dollars through the Single Exchange Market (MULC).

Getting amparo is a judicial process that it takes two or three months and involves an additional cost for the importer from 20 to 30% depending on the amount to be contested. This cost refers to court and legal costs. So far the chances of getting a guarantee to avoid SIMI have been high.

But this is only the first step: with that ruling in favor, the importer must ask the Central to release the corresponding dollars. At this point, since the Central denies the dollars or delays the response, the importer must once again appeal to justice. And this is where you face a bottleneck.

“That’s what happened so far on Thursdays they refuse those protections”Says Hermida. Faced with the specific request for access to dollars, “most of the time the judicial system replies that it must continue to wait for the Central to respond to that request”.

Faced with these difficulties, the alternative left to the importers is take out a loan in dollars, with rates that do not fall below 15%.

The other way is to go cash with liqui, the dollar used by companies that closed today $ 249 and you already have a 100% gap with the wholesale dollar.

“The requests for amparos will continue, but Justice will also continue with the tacit agreement to look the other way because it is pressed by the government”, assures Hermida.

Although the government claims that import restrictions focus on consumer goods, more and more sectors are protesting on this issue. Gustavo Weiss, president of the Argentine Chamber of Construction, says the sector “It has been a long time since it had trouble importing supplies.” That list includes everything from railroad tracks to pumps, valves and pipes. “We understand that what this new regulation does is make the operation even more difficult. This will undoubtedly affect the level of activity“.

Within the construction sector there are several companies that have resorted to some protection. “It doesn’t occur to me that there is another alternative, even if the protections take time to come out. This mechanism is not that simple, ”says Weiss.

“We hope that these measures that have been taken will somewhat limit the import of finished products manufactured in the country and free up quotas for supply importers like us,” says Weiss.

The Argentine Chamber of Commerce also warned that “the lower supply of goods that will result from this measure will add further price pressure, thus aggravating the inflationary phenomenon “.

And they stressed that “the difficulties that the new provisions try to tackle are largely cconsequence of repeated economic policy errors accumulated over the years “