New Procedure for Cabotage Waivers

On September 9, 2025, the Argentine Federal Ports and Navigation Agency issued Resolution 41/2025, which approves a new procedure for authorizing foreign-flagged vessels to provide cabotage operations in jurisdictional waters in cases where Argentine-flag vessels are unavailable. This new regulation repeals the previous procedure, governed under Resolution 52/2021 of the former Ministry of Transportation.

Article 6 of Decree-Law 19492/44 provided that “when, due to exceptional circumstances, it is not possible to supply basic necessities to a coastal area or to perform a contract because no Argentine vessels are available to provide the corresponding service, the ministerial authority in which the national port authority operates shall be authorized to grant, on a temporary basis and in each specific case, permission for foreign vessels to perform such service, as long as these circumstances of force majeure persist. That authority shall also be empowered to regulate the procedure, as well as to delegate the mentioned authorization to whomever it may designate.”

One of the main changes Resolution 41/2025 introduces concerns the way the lack of availability of domestic vessels is accredited. Under the previous regime, the request for exemption had to be published on an official government website and distributed by email through the former Undersecretary of Ports, Waterways and Merchant Marine. That was considered sufficient notification to the associations representing shipowners and workers in the sector.

Now, the new regulation shifts this burden to the applicants, who must declare the unavailability of Argentine vessels in their request through an affidavit (in accordance with articles 109 and 110 of Decree 1759/72). However, in cases where the Federal State is the beneficiary of the service, the new regulation establishes that it will be sufficient for the requesting agency to apply for the waiver before the Federal Ports and Navigation Agency, in which case the waiver will be granted without further formalities than the agency’s request by means of an original communication, after the public tender is awarded. This raises uncertainty as to how the requesting agency will demonstrate the lack of available national vessels under the terms of article 6 of Decree-Law 19492/44.

As to the duration of the authorization, the new regulation distinguishes between waivers granted to provide a “service” and those granted to perform a “contract.” Accordingly, it provides that waivers will be granted for a maximum period of 180 days. However, if the waiver is required to perform a contract, its validity will be equivalent to the duration of the contract (Resolution 41/2025, Annex I, article 6).

Furthermore, regarding the extension of the certificate’s validity period for duly proven weather-related or technical-operational reasons, the previous regulation stipulated a fixed maximum period of 15 days, while the new regime subjects the extension to the period stipulated by the technical area.

As for enforcement under the new procedure, if a waiver causes prejudice to a national shipowner, the Federal Ports and Navigation Agency has the authority to verify the situation and, if appropriate, revoke the certificate and file a criminal complaint for falsehood in the submitted affidavit. The new regulation provides that this possibility would apply only when the shipowner can demonstrate that they have a vessel or naval craft capable of carrying out the requested traffic under the same conditions and within the same time limits. However, under the new regulation, waivers granted when the beneficiary of the service is the Federal State remain excluded from this provision.