Brazil calls to Argentina by barriers to entry footwear
"After four years of truce, the Argentine government once again prevents the entry of Brazilian footwear." Thus begins the note published in ABINFORMA of January 2021, the official organ of ABICALÇADOS, the Brazilian association of footwear industries in Brazil, the largest representative entity in the sector.
According to the monitoring carried out by the association on exports and imports, 358 thousand pairs of footwear are pending import licenses to enter Argentina, of which 315 thousand have already exceeded the maximum period of 60 days established by the World Trade Organization -OMC -.
According to the CEO of ABICALÇADOS, Haroldo Ferreira, the damage has already reached US $ 3 million. “In October of last year, in the first monitoring carried out at the request of some companies, we verified that many of them had problems with almost 850 thousand pairs awaiting release at the border. It was when we had a meeting in the Argentina embassy in Brazil. From which there was an improvement, but we are still attentive ”said the executive.
Ferreira remember that the fact refers to the Kirchner governments, when Brazilian footwear had the same difficulties to enter the neighboring country.
“Argentina is going through an economic crisis and needs to preserve its reserves. The natural measure of the government, which has a more protectionist orientation, is to block imports, a barrier that in this case is placed by means of non-automatic licenses ”, explained the leader, underlining that the concern is that orders may be canceled or extensions for payments, harming the Brazilian industry.
Currently, Argentina is the second destination of the Brazilian footwear abroad, after the United States. Between January and October, Argentina received 6.3 million Brazilian pairs, which generated US $ 60.1 million. The drops were 25.2% in volume and 33.2% in turnover, in relation to the same period of 2019, published ABINFORMA.
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