End Of The Cepo And Other Restrictions

[dennisr]

Whilst I agree with the sentiment of competition and potential damage to the local economy, one has to be realistic.
What we pay here already for 'tech' goods is double or more, especially with the recent devaluation.
Does it follow the liberalisation model to relax laws for importers but not for personal use? Especially when we are told that the new government would like us all to live in a 'normal' country? Whatever that is.

Must maintain the high standard of living you have my friend.

 

[TwentyThousandRoads]

Yeah, they might start shipping gizmos here now, but enjoy spending your day at EZE trying to find your "lost" package (while you wait to pay the import tax -- which hasn't gone away AFAIK). Cheaper to go to Santiago.

 

[Gringoboy]

perhaps I'm being over optimistic, but I still believe that the personal imports..parcels by post, Amazon, Aliexpress etc will be normalised to the new model.
Jack boots in Ezeiza are a thing of the past.

 

[Ries]

A lot of things may happen- but none of them right away.

there are dozens of laws, rules, and customary ways of doing things that interlock.

A few of them can be changed by presidential decree- many can not.

I cannot believe that Amazon deliveries to your door will happen any sooner than a year from now, if that soon.

Macri has SAID certain things- but doing them is much more complicated.

He has not, to my awareness, said anything yet about dropping IMPORT taxes- only EXPORT taxes.
He has not mentioned changing, or streamlining, customs rules for small shipments.

He might, in the future. Dont hold your breath.

Also- in the USA, FedEx and UPS are both able to use "temporary", low paid, non-union employees, to keep rates down. And the incredible volume that Amazon gives them allows them great economy of scale. Neither of those things transfers to Argentina very easily.
Fed Ex employees here, in blanco, are higher paid, and will add more cost, complexity, and time to deliveries. And that would just be in Capital.
Imagine door to door delivery in Patagonia...

 

[Gringoboy]

I take your point Ries and I'm not expecting overnight miracles.
However, the cepo was lifted within a week, the import sworn statements (DJAI) are apparently a thing of the past, so they didn't hang around.
I don't really see why personal imports are any different.

 

[Ries]

well, the cepo was sort of lifted.
Is it $2 million a month, or $500?
Cuevas are still doing just the same as they were last week.
Florida still resounds to the chant of "cambio".

I dont really see why a LOT of things are any different.
But, this is Argentina, and they are.

I expect that most things Macri is doing will apply first to his backers- the families who own and run this country. So, large scale exports of soy and corn and sunflower oil will start right away. Big amounts of money moved online by giant companies, no problem. Maybe even spare parts for your BMW or Audi.
But to trickle down to affordable parts for consumer electronics- not the biggest priority.

 

[mikic007]

I bought today 1000usd for 13p, no restrictions, no fees. On my bank with only dni. At the same time I signed the paper where it was written that limit is 2mio, but only if you do it in certain way (personally at bank or through online system).

 

[ElQueso]

Also, don't confuse the cepo with the blue dollar. The blue dollar existed well before I came here in 2006, was still going when I came here and I remember from my first days seeing guys on Florida hollering "cambio, cambio". The cepo was merely what caused the blue dollar to part ways with the official rate.

When I changed some dollars yesterday at my favorite cambio I asked the girl behind the counter if they had any intention of closing up shop after the official price and the blue price were pretty much close to the same thing and she smiled and said people will always need to change money out of view of AFIP. On Florida they will still change for the scores of tourists that walk up and down the street.

 

[Gringoboy]

Spotted this in The Herald but the link to ambito.com just takes you to the main page with no mention of this story.

In Uruguay they have online purchase restrictions of US$200 five times a year, which I didn't know.

 

[mikic007]

I was searching and no one is mentioning, how lifted cepo affected dólar transfer from Argentina to, let's say, Europe. According to lanacion (http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1855421-preguntas-y-respuestas-sobre-la-apertura-del-cepo-una-guia-esencial-para-todo-consumidor) is now possible to send up to 2mio monthly.

Anyone knows more? Fees, restrictions? Let's say, it's for selling flat, all legal. Thanks.