The relaxation of foreign trade restrictions announced by the national government promises a substantial impact on the country’s logistics dynamics. The measure, aligned with the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the roadmap toward lifting currency controls, will streamline payment deadlines for importers, thereby speeding up merchandise supply times.

Until now, payments for imported goods required a 30-day wait from the customs entry registration to access the Single Free Exchange Market (MULC). Starting this Friday, importers can settle payments immediately after customs entry, significantly reducing administrative delays that affected logistics.

The benefits also extend to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which gain even greater agility. These firms can now make payments directly from the dispatch at the port of origin, without waiting for the cargo to arrive in Argentina. This change is crucial for many SMEs that, due to previous restrictions, faced higher costs by resorting to the parallel exchange rate or lost international suppliers demanding advance payments.

The changes also apply to service imports, which can now be paid upon service delivery, and to transactions between related companies, where the payment waiting period is halved from 180 days to just 90. For capital goods, essential for industrial projects, the new rules allow a 30% advance payment, 50% upon dispatch at the port of origin, and the remaining 20% upon customs entry registration.

Aligned Financial and Merchandise Flows

From a logistics perspective, this new framework enables tangible acceleration in cargo movement and reduces idle time for goods in fiscal warehouses, customs zones, and ports. By allowing financial flows to more directly align with the physical movement of goods, import cycles are shortened, and predictability improves across the entire supply chain.

The announcement comes as imports were already rebounding. According to the latest trade balan ce data, February saw foreign purchases worth USD 5.864 billion, a 42.3% year-on-year increase, driven mainly by a 55.4% rise in imported quantities. Although average prices dropped by 8.5%, the growing volume signals increased demand on national logistics infrastructure. L

Logistics Response Capacity

This recovery in import activity, supported by the elimination of taxes like the PAIS tax and reduced tariffs for numerous tariff positions, opens a window of opportunities but also challenges. Logistics operators will need to adapt their capacities to handle a growing flow of goods, requiring greater agility in land, sea, and air transport, as well as efficiency in inventory management.

The government highlights that eliminating the “cross-restriction” will also normalize companies’ access to the MULC, removing barriers that severely complicated foreign trade in 2023. This measure will allow many firms that had shifted to the parallel market to return to formal channels, improving transaction transparency and reducing exchange costs.

In the coming months, the logistics sector is expected to reorganize processes, renegotiate delivery times with suppliers, and anticipate infrastructure investments to keep pace with the acceleration of foreign trade. The challenge will be to capitalize on this opportunity without falling into bottlenecks that could hinder the recovery due to logistical capacity constraints.