System for Monitoring and Tracing Foreign Trade Operations

Through Decree No. 2103/2014 dated November 13, 2014, the Argentine Executive Branch created, at the level of the head of Cabinet of Ministers, a Monitoring and Tracing Unit for Foreign Trade Operations (the “Unit”), in order to verify the price and quantity of goods and services exported and imported by Argentina, jointly with the inflow and outflow of foreign currencies.
 
The decree’s recitals state that the need for this system stems from an increase in the scale of foreign trade, as well as the fact that different cases of over-invoicing of imports, under-invoicing of exports and transfer prices that decrease the amount of taxes payable in Argentina. All these cases have tended to promote undercover systems for transfers of currencies.
 
To remedy this situation, the Unit will develop the following tasks: (i) carry out the monitoring of foreign trade operations, ensuring follow-up and traceability; (ii) coordinate access, by the competent bodies, of the reports of foreign trade, for the purpose of verifying compliance with the formal and substantive requirements of current regulations; (iii) monitor settings and allegations made by the control agencies related to foreign trade; and (iv) request and provide information to other jurisdictions on the issues within its competence.
 
The Unit will be integrated by the head of Cabinet of Ministers, who will chair it, and by representatives from the areas of the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance through the Undersecretariat of Economic Coordination and Improvement of Competitiveness and of the Secretariat of Trade; the Federal Tax Authority with the participation of the Customs Authority, the Internal Revenue Service and the General Directorate of Social Security Resources; the Central Bank through the Superintendence of Financial and Foreign Exchange Entities; the Superintendence of Insurance; the Securities Commission and the Financial Information Unit. , The General Attorney of Economic Crime and Asset Laundering has also been invited to integrate the above-mentioned Unit.