It is like an onion. One layer on top of another, all competing to muddy the official administration of foreign trade. The Government’s mission: buy time until the harvest dollars arrive in the coffers of the Central Bank (BCRA).
Of the changes in the list of tariff positions in May 2020, the annual planning of imports company by company, the “obstacles” in the SIMI (permits for purchases abroad), the “update” of the Financial Economic Capacity (CEF ) in February, to the incorporation a week ago of Miguel Pesce’s finger as auditor of the import payment process, which for the majority means one more obstacle in foreign trade.
This latest decision, added to those previously applied, began to alarm companies from different sectors and the chambers that represent them because It makes explicit that the lack of foreign currency imposes a limit on the recovery of economic activity during this year.
In fact, the president of the monetary entity had to go through the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) this week to reopen another dialogue table. There he asked businessmen for “patience”. Pesce will return next week to give explanations to other sectors.
The barriers for the purchase of inputs to produce, add new capital goods as investments or bring consumer goods to expand the supply of products grew at the same time that the BCRA was running out of liquid reserves. Also the net ones are, according to analysts, in negative territory.
The world of obstacles starts divided into two: automatic and non-automatic licenses. But Before accessing the planet of tariff positions, you have to pass the CEF in the AFIP. In February, the entity headed by Mercedes Marcó del Pont (with listings from the BCRA and the Ministry of Productive Development) updated that “risk profile” that serves as a barrier to accessing a SIMI. Many were left without a quota for foreign trade operations. In February, a desert of dollars, the AFIP applied the broad brush and affected a significant part of the business world, including some large exporting firms. Slowly, after private complaints, the problem began to be channeled, although it persists for some firms.
After passing the CEF, importers must exceed the BCRA requirements to pay an advance abroad and then obtain the Productive Development permit (SIMI).
“Now there is a new [traba] for the portion of merchandise that is under automatic license and that does not put a limit on imports in quantities, because BCRA was more active than Development. Tells you: ‘Look, under these conditions, up to a certain ceiling amount in dollars, you will immediately access the foreign exchange market to pay the balance of your imports. Beyond this limit, it is not that I am not going to let you import, but that you are going to have to pay your supplier 180 days from the import clearance’”, explained a trade expert. “In practice, the latter is operationally and logistically like leaving you without concern,” he qualified.
The BCRA’s decision last Friday was to implement a change when requesting a SIMI, according to two categories, A and B. In the first, where the automatic licenses are, access to the foreign exchange market is limited according to two formulas : the FOB value of your 2021 imports plus 5% of said value or the FOB value of your 2020 imports plus 70% of said value.
The meeting the day before yesterday afternoon of the Foreign Trade Commission of the Argentine Chamber of Commerce (CAC) reached the conclusion that BCRA Communication 7466 is a clear limit for automatic licenses. “Everyone was surprised that they had not put it before seeing the rate at which imports had been growing, “ ironized one of the participants.
“There is a lot of fear with this new Central resolution on SIMIS A and B, and the kicking of payments, because it affects productive parties. That is being discussed to see how it is going to be done, because it hits the increase in production”, told an executive of a major automaker.
In the electronic world they indicated that the brake they had put on the CEF began to normalize. “Where everything is going to get complicated is because of the A 7466 communication,” they said. There, kits are imported that remain on one side and the other of the counter at the time of assembling their products: part of that already shipped kit could be paid for and another part could not, according to the norm.
“The CEF thing was fixed for some and not yet for others. Solutions were found”, they told the UIA. “Now we are going to see how the requests for SIMIS, A and B turn out, but the problem will be seen in a few months,” he added.
In the manufacturing entity they remarked that the international prices of inputs also stress the ceilings in this standard and reduce the volume of imports. “All those who made investments to increase their production, if now they don’t give them the dollars to feed those equipment, what are they going to do?” Another industrialist from the world of electrical appliances, who has not answered the phone for weeks, affirms that the import of finished products is closed, but not that of materials (inputs).
“Our associates inform us that to date difficulties persist in terms of imports, linked to the CEF calculated by the AFIP”, reported the CAC in a note, which asked the AFIP officials, with whom they met, a “correction” of the problem. In it, the CAC reported that 80% of imports are inputs. “Overcoming these difficulties is relevant to preserve the recovery that has occurred in recent months,” he concluded.
Official sources consulted by THE NATION They stressed again that “dollars will not be lacking for production” and that there are no changes in the SIMI granted by Productive Development. Another source, meanwhile, highlighted the growth in imports last January compared to 2021 and added that the BCRA “seeks to guarantee importers the availability of foreign currency throughout the year” and that “no payment is blocked. If a company wants to expand its importation, it can do so with 180-day financing.”
The business world hopes that the closing of the agreement with the Fund -which will immediately disburse US$9,800 million- and the liquidations of the thick harvest -the strong period is May and June- dismantle the obstacles to gain time imposed by the Government and the BCRA . In fact, that “flexibility” is a promise that Alberto Fernández made to the IMF in the agreement itself.