Argentina – civil unrest risks rising?

Laurence Allan, of IHS, looks at growing problems in Argentina

Argentina’s government has officially announced a new unit to scrutinise export and import operations. The Unit for Following and Tracing Foreign Trade Operations was created under Decree 2103/2014 by the cabinet on 13 November. It will be under direct cabinet control and will include representatives from the Ministry of Economy, Central Bank, Financial Information Unit, Prosecutor for Economic Crimes and Money Laundering, and AFIP, Argentina’s national tax authority. The decree said the new unit has been established in light of the massive expansion of foreign trade since 2003, and identified multinational companies as participating in some 68% of Argentina’s foreign trade. It specifically noted AFIP has identified different cases of “overbilling of imports, underbilling of exports, and transfer prices that minimise taxes due ...” and “... transfers of foreign exchange ... through criminal manoeuvres”.