The Argentine Chamber of Commerce and Services (CAC) conducted, together with foreign trade chambers from all over the country, a survey on activity during the isolation established since March by the National Government. The exporting SMEs surveyed belong to the food and beverage, auto parts, medical equipment, clothing and textile, and agricultural machinery sectors, among others. The results show a significant crisis in the sector recognized for its contribution to employment and added value.
El 53% of companies continue to operate normally, while 27% do it partially, and 20% are not operating.
La survey The data indicate that the flow of operations of companies that focused their tasks on international buying and selling was significantly reduced. In numbers, for those companies whose exports and imports represented more than 90% of their activity, the fall was 33% and for the range that represented 60 to 90%, the contraction was 32 points. In those that represented less than 30% of their activity, meanwhile, an increase of 27% was recorded between March and June.
Obstacles
El 39% of companies experienced operational difficulties in exporting; the 37% had it in imports, while 24% had no problems.
The most common problem in exports was the drop in demand and supply, with 25%, which was exclusively caused by the pandemic, although other problems pre-existing the expansion of Covid-19 are also seen.
Regarding the problems reported in the import, 31% said they had to do with authorizations or permits to import.
Policy suggestions
The consultation also includes a series of suggestions for measures for the Government, among which the following stand out: Reduction of taxes and/or duties on exports y trade facilitation actions.
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