The Secretariat of Commerce put into force a new regime for importers to request automatic and non-automatic import licenses under Resolution No. 523/2017, relaxing some requirements that importers must bear.
According to the new regime, those goods that are subject to non-automatic licensing have a broader tolerance margin regarding weight and volume between the declaration submitted when requesting the non-automatic license (in the Integral Import Monitoring System or “SIMI”, after its Spanish acronym) and the amounts declared in the actual customs definitive entry.
Under the new regulation, only importers previously registered in the Ministry of Production Single Regime (in Spanish, Registro Único del Ministerio de Producción –RUMP-) may request non-automatic import licenses.
The term of the import licenses granted was doubled from 90 to 180 calendar days and now importers are able to request an extension of such term only once. The new regulation sets more favorable conditions for importers and follows the WTO guidelines more closely, as the new regime is easier to comply with and relaxes the imports’ flow. It is better for the importer to have more appropriate terms both to meet the licensing regime standards and to perform the actual import operation.
In sum, even though those who need to request non-automatic licenses must be registered in an additional register, the new licensing regime introduces some important requirements. From now on it will be easier for importers to plan their import operations.
This insight is a brief comment on legal news in Argentina; it does not purport to be an exhaustive analysis or to provide legal advice.