Take a trip to Chile or Spain and you’ll see plenty of Argentine brands at shopping malls, from Havana, La Cabrera to Luciano’s to clothing brands or household brands like the Candle Shop. Throughout Latin America companies like MercadoLibre also has a major presence. The issue is, that in order for Argentine brands to go global companies need to effectively relocate to other countries and depend on foreign production for their global operations - meaning almost zero economic benefit from their international activities actually flows back to Argentina from these made in Argentine success stories. Their owners almost all live and pay taxes in Uruguay or elsewhere and those few that remain usually put all of their foreign assets into trusts out of reach of Argentine tax authorities or banking systems.
This is all thanks to decades of oppressive and abusive domestic fiscal and economic policies as well as cherry-picking trade policies - which we all know needs to be a two way street in order to actually work. The result, each year about a third of Argentina’s real GDP doesn’t even make it to Argentina or into the light of day to even be counted.
you see argentine brands in south america due to mercosur.
but the frictional costs required to export are very high from Argentina.
I know some companies that are successful because they are able to ship by companies like DHL or Correo Argentina, as opposed to going thru the system of export taxes, customs brokers, and ports for shipping by container.
For instance, Darto sells sartenes to chefs in Paris, and sells quite a bit to the USA- 15 dollars flat rate to any country.
I know a couple of Argentine eyeglasses frame manufacturers, whose products, obviously, are small and light- they export directly to consumers all over the world.
But once you get into bulk freight, the legal and customs and tax ramifications of shipping make it common for prices to have to double or triple.
China dominates consumer retail in the USA right now, without "relocating" simply by drop shipping. I just bought a stereo amplifier from a company in Hong Kong, it was at my door within a week.
Obviously, they also defy your "two way street" rule. They have stricter local ownership and investment and tax rules for foreign companies than Argentina.
You are raising ideological economic theories- I am talking about the simple fact that export taxes of 5% to 15% are just the start. Only a very few countries charge export taxes on goods at all, and of them, Argentina is, I believe, second only to the Solomon Islands (!) in how high the export tax is.
This is all tied in with the way the Argentine tax system is designed to privelige inherited wealth, and tax the middle class and poor, but not the rich- export taxes, along with a very high IVA, and taxes on employee salaries, are the vast majority of tax income to the government. No inheritance tax, no real estate tax outside of BA Provincia (and there, its the tiny ABL) corporate and personal income taxes which exist basically in theory only- the system does not encourage exports, or support increases in manufacturing and Value added jobs and income.
The laws could be changed to encourage exports.
The government could invest relatively small amounts in helping market argentine exports- The Turks, for example, have supported a central showroom in the garment district in NYC for small manufacturers, and, as a result, sell a lot in the USA. The Argentine shoe and clothing sectors, along with small machinery, transformers, tools, lighting, furniture, appliances, kitchen equipment, industrial laundry machines, agricultural machines and accessories, are just a few industries that could be very competitive in North America, if they were able to export freely.
We dont need lots of low priced chinese crap- we need to sell the stuff that is already made here.
