For those of you exporting to Argentina, you know all too
well how challenging customs clearance has been with the required prior
approval by the Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos (AFIP-
Argentine Tax and Customs Authority) and the submission of a Sworn Affidavit of Intent to Import,
commonly known as the “DJAI.”
As announced at the end of December 2015, the newly ushered
in “Sistema Integral de Monitore de Importaciones,” (“SIMI” - Integral System
of Import Monitoring), has taken the DJAI’s place as Argentina’s new import
verification mechanism.
Unfortunately, despite the termination of the “DJAI,” a
registration for an import license remains required for all imports, under 1 of
2 categories - either an “automatic import license,” or a “non-automatic import
license.” Once obtained, these licenses
remains valid for 90 days.
The processing and management of these licenses must now be
done via SIMI, whose purpose is to also provide the Argentine government with a
simple and transparent way to gather statistical information on imports.
Non-Automatic Import License
A non-automatic import license must be applied for where a
shipment requires a prior approval.
What determines whether or not a prior approval is needed turns on
whether or not the article is included in the tariff of the Mercosur Common Nomenclature (“MCN”)
which includes some, but not all, tariff numbers under the following chapters:
Chapters 28, 29
Chapters 34, 36, 39
Chapter 40, 42, 44, 48, 49
Chapters 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59
Chapters 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 68, 69
Chapters 70, 73, 74, 76
Chapters 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 89
Chapter 90, 94, 95, 96
Depending on the product’s tariff number, 1 of 15 different
protocols for procuring the license must be undertaken, each of which requires
the submission of data related to the goods itself and the exporter.
Automatic Import License
An automatic import license may be applied for where goods do
not require a prior approval. Such
application requires providing no less than 14 data points such as country of
origin, FOB values, and product information.
What does this change mean?
The new SIMI system should streamline customs clearance into
Argentina given the application of the non-automatic import license and the
reduction in goods subject to prior approval.
If you export goods to Argentina, be prepared for the
possibility that customs may come back asking questions in relation to the
values you have provided as Argentina maintains a database of what it considers
to be the import value of certain articles based on the history of values
recorded by other prior imports of the same kind. Moreover, in the case of warranty or
replacement parts, Argentina does not recognize that these articles have
no value but will accept a lower value than that under a traditional sale.
It is therefore important that valuations remain consistent
both for customs entry purposes as well as in the event a customs challenge
related to the value, and hence the duties and taxes paid to the government,
needs to be resolved.
It should be noted that Argentina customs has been known to
look to historic import data and customer price lists of third party companies
when making a challenge in an effort to collect higher tax and duty
revenues.
Next Steps
Exporting to Argentina and
experiencing shorter customs clearance times may be possible with some advance
preparation. If this is something you
would like to explore, post your questions and/or comments below.
