The Argentine Central Bank Suspends Certain Importers from the Foreign Exchange Market

Through Communiques “C” 89098 to 89106, all dated January 29, 2021, the Argentine Central Bank (the “BCRA,” after its acronym in Spanish) suspended nine importers who had accessed the Argentine foreign exchange market to make advance payments on imports and failed to duly “nationalize” the goods or bring the corresponding proceeds back to Argentina.

Procedurally, this means the BCRA applied one of the provisional remedies provided in section 17, subsection a) of Law No. 19,359 of the Criminal Exchange Rate System (as restated under Decree No. 480/95), i.e. a suspension.

Under foreign exchange regulations, importers accessing the advance payment on imports system must either (i) demonstrate that the imported goods entered the country within the authorized timeframe by type of good (which is either 90 or 270 consecutive days from the date the foreign exchange market was accessed) or (ii) liquidate, within that timeframe, in the foreign exchange market, any proceeds in foreign currency from the return from the advance payment in question.

Although in the past such breaches were submitted to summary proceedings under the Criminal Exchange Rate System, suspensions such as these as provisional remedies were infrequent.