Fernando Furci, General Manager of the CIRAhighlights in this interview the importance of adapting to a context of governmental transformations and exposes the need to generate favorable conditions for economic growth by promoting international trade.
We focus on foreign trade issues, providing tailored solutions to all our partners. We have more than 1,200 companies, which They import more than 8 billion dollars per year. Each of the companies has different needs regarding the same topic, for that reason our focus is on provide tailored solutions. We try to personalize the attention we give to each of the people we have in our chamber and that generates added value for us.
We are in a time of change. This new government is putting the focus on clean up the economy as a whole. There are central themes, such as political and social issues, and then there are some secondary themes: trade and logisticswhich are on the agenda and will gain momentum once the main economic indicators are resolved.
In parallel, certain processes for foreign trade were facilitated that bring us changes very restrictive policies that we have suffered for many years. Measures like the automatic license removal, the elimination of economic and financial capacity As a condition for requesting an import permit, the elimination of the sworn declaration of product composition for footwear and textiles that had no reason to exist, the elimination of the Single Registry of the productive matrix in the Ministry of Production, the regulations that eliminate mandatory red color for certain merchandise and puts them in the normal selectivity channel. All of these are positive norms that they greatly decompress the pressure on foreign trade.
The businessmen of the chamber tell us that they are beginning to know its true cost, because they are beginning to project imports with certain time calculations that allow them to anticipate, for example, what they are going to do with the merchandise until they have it in their warehouse. That allows you to get finite on costs.
If you as a country want to generate conditions of competition, costs become something fundamental. It is important to be finite with logistics, to be efficient in port and loadingin the financial use of the company’s economic resources for foreign trade, in the tax management of the company in relation to trade issues.
We are one of the most closed economies in the world. In fact, Argentina is one of the two or three most closed economies in Latin America. So, I think we have a lot to grow and a lot to give in terms of international trade.
The President of the Nation began to talk about international trade for what it really is: trade. International trade is a two-way street, To have many exports you need to have many imports. You need one surplus trade balance, but with more exports and imports. If you are successful in that, you achieve more economic activity and employment.
With the generation of contexts and frameworks that allow companies to grow, generate better businesses and take advantage of special regimes, so that the manufacturing industry and the agricultural industry can export more. 80% of imports are for production. Also, there is an important relationship between GDP and imports: For every point of GDP that Argentina grows, imports grew three points. As long as imports do not grow, you most likely will not see economic activity grow.
Afterwards, the businessman has to “peel his soul” to go out and sell and generate business. Sometimes, it is not only about selling, but it is necessary generate alliances. For small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, it is a challenge to change their mindset; many will have to leave their position of comfort and reorganize to compete.
Today the needs of society are being studied. It is true that the urgent trumps the important and there are probably measures that can be taken later, once certain aspects of the economy are more reorganized.
By changing the underlying measures, the path is paved legally and commercially. We are receiving inquiries about operational frameworks around the digitalization of foreign trade processes. Digitization seems very important to us, saves you time and provides predictability, in addition to providing transparency. Everything that works on paper has a speed and security that is extremely low.
Expectations in general are good. No solution was going to be easy and immediate. According to the debt with importers The best tool that the government considered available was made available, which put a stop to a historical problem, which had to do with what we do with the lack of dollars and the debt. This scenario is being fulfilled to the letter and that generates very good expectations from a financial point of view.
There are also good expectations in foreign trade operations and the simplification regime that will be applied in the future. Today, in parallel with the healing of the economy, some processes are being added that bring some relief.
In our opinion, once certain economic variables are adjusted, the underlying issues of trade will begin to be addressed.
The CIRA is open to all businessmen who want to participate in our institution, we work hard on all import issues in times of restrictions and even more openness. We are forming sectoral working commissions that are revealing problems, constantly generating proposals to the government and many of which are taken for the purpose of improving processes. We generate a lot of information and technically train our partners so they can stay up to date. We have one network in network extremely important in Argentina and in the world, which is available for the development of new suppliers and for the search for new opportunities abroad.
