Argentina is going to reduce, from 10% down to 5%, customs duties on exports of raw hides and skins by the end of the year. Shortly after, Argentina’s government is planning to achieve full deregulation within 2020. During the latest meeting with some representatives of the Mesa de la Carne, the association of Argentinian livestock and farming industry players, Mauricio Macri, Argentina’s president since December 2015, reassured about such measures to be adopted: “Although we still have to sign the decree, such is the decision we have made at this point”, points out an industrial entrepreneur, at the meeting, while speaking to El Clarìn Rural. The conciliatory act of the government, which has been striving hard, for years, to carry out a difficult (and painful) deregulation process, comes after other announcements made in September: in fact, two months ago they were supposed to apply new customs duties on exports of commodities, including finished and semi-finished leather, which would have subsequently affected the international leather industry, starting from the rise in the price of Argentinian salted hides. In contrast, La Mesa de la Carne wants duties on raw hides and skins to be entirely removed, to consequently enhance and augment revenues coming from the leather industry by-products.
Macri assures that Argentina, after past decisions, will remove customs duties on leather within 2020
