The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, together with the Chinese Ambassador to Argentina, Zou Xiaoli, announced this Wednesday (26.04.2023/XNUMX/XNUMX) the activation of the swap with China, which will allow more than 1.040 billion dollars of imports from the Asian country to be paid in yuan.
In this regard, the head of the Treasury Department stated that these more than 1.040 billion dollars corresponded to rescheduled imports from a third country that were re-invoiced in dollars. At the meeting, in which the President of the Central Bank, Miguel Ángel Pesce, also participated, it was indicated that From May There will be an average of 790 million dollars of imports of merchandise of Chinese origin that will begin to be paid for in yuan.
The measure is part of the inspections and summons carried out by Customs to companies that imported goods of Chinese origin, but re-invoiced from Uruguay and Europe, in which the request for SIRAS in yuan was exponentially registered.In this context, the lower demand for dollars due to the activation of the swap with China will have a positive impact on the Central Bank's reserves.
Customs inspections are aimed at over-invoicing of imports by some companies in order to obtain dollars abroad. They analyze whether the reason for re-invoicing from Uruguay corresponds to a maneuver to avoid paying abroad in yuan – a logical situation if payment were made directly to China – and thus be able to access dollars avoiding the use of yuan.
So far this year, 4.803 destinations were analyzed for USD 287.781.648 of imports of merchandise manufactured in China and remanufactured from European countries. In this way, it is highlighted that only three countries concentrate 60% of the triangulated operations for 172 million dollars.
In addition, the main Imported goods are capital goods (machinery and turnkey factories) and the companies analysed are mainly from the pharmaceutical, oil, telecommunications and automotive sectors. In this process, none of the products originating in China had an “additional” added value in Europe, and all were re-invoicing operations since the customs manifest indicates that the merchandise was shipped directly from China to Argentina.
As well, 1.790 destinations were analyzed for USD 205.907.898 of imports of merchandise manufactured in China and re-invoiced from Uruguay. In this case, only 10 companies account for 49% of the triangulated operations for 100,3 million dollars and the two main companies are from the agrochemical sector and account for 27% of the total operations. None of the products originating in China had an “additional” added value in Uruguay; they were all re-invoicing operations.
The meeting was attended by the head of the Cabinet of Advisors Unit, Leonardo Madcur; the Secretary of Economic Policy, Gabriel Rubinstein; and his counterparts from Industry and Productive Development, José Ignacio De Mendiguren; Legal and Administrative, Ricardo Casal; and Commerce, Matias Tombolini. Also present were Guillermo Michel, General Director of Customs; Marco Lavagna, Director of INDEC and Secretary of Strategic and International Financial Affairs; Lisandro Cleri, Second Vice President of the Central Bank; Carlos Castagneto, Federal Administrator of AFIP; Germán Cervantes, Undersecretary of Commercial Policy and Management; and his counterpart from Industry, Priscila Makari; and Claudio Ambrosini, President of ENACOM.
Representing the Chinese Embassy in Argentina were Minister Counselor Xia Diya and Counselor Wei Lin, as well as Commercial Attaché Peng Xinye. Also present were the President of ICBC Argentina, Zhang Junguo; his counterpart from Bank of China Limited, Buenos Aires Branch; and the Executive Director of the Argentine-Chinese Chamber, Alejandra Conconi.
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