Argentina announces fewer taxes for herbicide importation

The Argentina government announced a reduction in taxes for the importation of herbicides, a measure announced by the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, aiming to favor agriculture. 

Luis Caputo

The changes include significantly reducing tariffs for herbicides formulated with Atrazine, Glyphosate, and 2-4-D.

According to the announcement, import tariffs will be reduced from 35% to 12.6%, aligning with Mercosur’s common tariff. In the specific case of primary Atrazine, the reduction would be from 24% to 10.8%.

Reactions to the announcement were diverse. While some in the agrochemical industry adopted a skeptical stance, awaiting the decree’s publication to assess its effects, others criticized it. 

Distributors, manufacturers, and local producers argued that the measure would have an insignificant impact and generate unfair competition with Argentine national production. 

In this scenario, the Argentine Chamber of Fertilizer and Agrochemical Industry (CIAFA) commented that, based on the announcement, the measure would affect local synthesis and formulation factories.

On the other hand, the Northern Producers Association (Apronor) stated, "It does not favor the agricultural sector. It favors the country in any case. Unfortunately, these are crumbs compared to how much they plundered us throughout our homeland." 

The measure is said to have been taken in response to demonstrations by the Argentine Rural Society and the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange, which raised the need to reduce taxes to stimulate the current wheat campaign. At the same time, stakeholders in the herbicide sales chain explained that the products for the season are already available and, therefore, the reduction would impact later.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)