Argentina’s Delay in Dispatching Imports is Irritating Trade Partners

(MercoPress)

Since the controversial Argentine Interior Commerce Secretary Guillermo Moreno announced in an April 23 letter that he will examine overseas purchases to consider the competitiveness of the national market, products worth millions of dollars have been delayed at Argentina’s borders and ports.

Cargoes of cheeses from France, beer from Holland, pasta from Italy, canned pineapple from Indonesia, bell peppers from Peru, and candies from Brazil are among products being delayed, according to the Chamber of Importers, which represents about 300 companies, including local units of Chile’s SACI Falabella and France’s Carrefour SA.

Argentine import restrictions and an exchange rate policy that favored local industry enabled Argentina to build up a record trade surplus of 17 billion USD in 2009 on an overall trade of approximately 100 billion US dollars.

However reprisals could hurt Argentina’s 56 billion of annual exports, mostly food products, equivalent to 17% of GDP. Brazil and the European Union with 45% of Argentina’s exports have warned that such kind of limits are in violation of international treaties and liable to reprisals. Read more here.