Argentina’s textile sector reels as import surge hits job

[SlowWalker]

You misread me.
My experience importing TO Argentina was december 2025.
And, like many small businesses here, I was importing a particular industrial product, not a pair of generic jeans from Amazon. I was importing this machine directly from the factory in New Dehli.
I know various manufacturers here who have similar issues, such as a factory I visited in La Matanza that bought a textile specific laser for distressgns on a large scale. Not something you get from viabox.
I am talking about industry specific machines, often built to order, some airfreight and some by ship…

Understood.
From expererience in other countries, these types of companies 1) may have other methods or able to organize personalized solutions as well, and 2) may still be able to offer services in terms of acting as your customs agent and therefore filing the papers etc. and if they don't they can usually point in the direction of a logistics company that can handle the whole thing for you. 3) Assuming you were buying from China, Aerobox could probably help since China and US are their two locations for points of origin.

I shared with you both personal and others I know experiences in other countries making online purchases and from Alibaba for an automatic CNC table for instance. Troubles with international shipment is not a uniquely Argentinian experience and with proper brokerage services with this administration the process is much smoother and easier.

 

[Ries]

Understood.
From expererience in other countries, these types of companies 1) may have other methods or able to organize personalized solutions as well, and 2) may still be able to offer services in terms of acting as your customs agent and therefore filing the papers etc. and if they don't they can usually point in the direction of a logistics company that can handle the whole thing for you. 3) Assuming you were buying from China, Aerobox could probably help since China and US are their two locations for points of origin.

I shared with you both personal and others I know experiences in other countries making online purchases and from Alibaba for an automatic CNC table for instance. Troubles with international shipment is not a uniquely Argentinian experience and with proper brokerage services with this administration the process is much smoother and easier.

alibaba is pretty seamless everywhere else.
I know people buying machines and materials from Alibaba recently in the USA, and the foreign companies are shipping with all duties prepaid, so no, proper brokerage services are NOT required, even in the incredibly screwed up tariff confusion of the USA, right now, but they are here in Argentina.

I know several small Argentine manufacturers who export by shipping DHL to europe and north america- small products, shippable in small boxes, and its easy and fast- from eyeglasses frames to frying pans to garments, if you are shipping direct to customers elsewhere in relatively tiny quantities, its easy to export. Large quantities, in normal shipping ways- very very difficult. Thats backwards from what it should be.

And the opposite, importing a 5 kilo DHL box, is enormously complicated, doubles the price, and takes a long time.
Argentina places expensive and pointless frictional costs on imports.

(exporting container loads, on the other hand, unless its one of the five or so bulk commodities the government endorses, is difficult and expensive FROM or TO Argentina)

I have seen this again and again- its simply slower, more complicated, and much more expensive to either export or import from or to Argentina, than most other places on earth, and the current government has done diddly squat to change that.

 

[SlowWalker]

alibaba is pretty seamless everywhere else.
I know people buying machines and materials from Alibaba recently in the USA, and the foreign companies are shipping with all duties prepaid, so no, proper brokerage services are NOT required, even in the incredibly screwed up tariff confusion of the USA, right now, but they are here in Argentina.

I know several small Argentine manufacturers who export by shipping DHL to europe and north america- small products, shippable in small boxes, and its easy and fast- from eyeglasses frames to frying pans to garments, if you are shipping direct to customers elsewhere in relatively tiny quantities, its easy to export. Large quantities, in normal shipping ways- very very difficult. Thats backwards from what it should be.

And the opposite, importing a 5 kilo DHL box, is enormously complicated, doubles the price, and takes a long time.
Argentina places expensive and pointless frictional costs on imports.

(exporting container loads, on the other hand, unless its one of the five or so bulk commodities the government endorses, is difficult and expensive FROM or TO Argentina)

I have seen this again and again- its simply slower, more complicated, and much more expensive to either export or import from or to Argentina, than most other places on earth, and the current government has done diddly squat to change that.

I think we can agree to disagree at this point. We both have experiences that support each's point of view both in Argentina and abroad.

I guess if its really hard to import things as you suggest, then opening the market shouldn't really have much of an impact since it'll be really hard to actually get the products here and to the market. And in this case, the Argentinian factories won't be losing any market share and all the layoffs are for other reasons. Similarly, agriculture, oil and gas, mining etc will probably still be suffering from getting equipment into the country for new installation, expansion and maintenance. Yet somehow all these industries appear to be growing.

All I can suggest, is all these parties (individuals or companies) that are having problems importing or exporting procure the services of an actual logistics/freight and customs brokerage company (can be one or two separate companies). Using these companies may be more or less expensive than DHL depending on amounts shipped. This is the same in other countries from my experience. This will make the process far easier. Having all the proper documentation, filled out correctly and submitted correctly the first time makes application review and approval much smoother.