11/20/2020 11:17 AM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 11/20/2020 11:17 AM
The companies grouped in AmCham, the Argentine-American chamber of commerce, ask the Government to end the Maximum Prices program, set in March and in effect until January 31.
They assure that it is not sustainable and, in exchange, they propose to expand the Care Prices plan and that they be allowed to adjust the values of the products included in Maximum Prices in a "staggered" manner.
On March 20, Resolution 100/2020 of the Ministry of Internal Commerce was published in the Official Gazette, by which the PEN authorities set a maximum price mechanism, freezing them to March 6 of this year.
This standard was applied to a significant number of categories: food, beverages, hygiene and personal care products.
The companies say that, after 8 months of the program, "in an inflationary environment of between 3-4% per month and with the granting of increases that reached between 5 and 6.5% in that period, the question is
how sustainable it is
" the program.
And that the AmCham proposal, in order not to "lose sight of the situation of vulnerability of vast sectors of our society and the relevance in the family basket of some of the essential products reached by the regulations", is to find a "
consensual and equitable ".
According to the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, from the beginning of this policy, they raised to officials the
concerns and alarm lights
that the program aroused in the
headquarters
and in the directors of all the companies that operate in the country.
"We have always been listened to, and their vocation for dialogue was permanent, simply that the passage of time makes
this resolution unsustainable
,
"
the companies say
.
The proposal that AmCham approached the Government seeks, on the one hand, to reflect "the legitimate concerns about the
business climate
" and also "the efforts of the private sector to contribute to improving the socioeconomic context."
Consists in:
The Argentine ambassador to the United States, Jorge Arguello, during an Amcham meeting.
•
Not to extend, when it expires on January 31, the rule that set the Maximum Prices
(Resolution 100/2020).
According to the chamber, in the 8 months of the program operating costs increased
in the range of 15-27% due to
the weight of the devaluation in imported inputs (the average 62% of the cost structure is imported inputs or affected by the evolution of the dollar), additional increases in the workforce due to salary agreements within and outside the agreement and other effects on local inputs (mainly caused by the shortage of production, either due to transportation limitations, import restrictions or partial impossibility or total to produce them).
The Chamber stressed that the program was made without distinguishing the specific characteristics of distribution and price of each product, or where it was sold.
"We can be talking that a local supermarket may be marketing affected products at maximum prices, which reach almost 22% of its turnover and 68% of the units sold," they exemplify.
•
Authorize in the current period of validity of the rule 2 or 3 price increases
.
"It is very difficult for the private sector to maintain the
normal supply
of the products reached, which could affect the economic sustainability of some of them, discouraging investment and related business models," they explain.
•
Expand
the base of the "Care Prices" program,
focusing on
basic products
.
It is proposed to include varied and quality products, through which the coverage of the basic basket is guaranteed.
They suggest that as of the renewal date of Care Prices (which expires on January 7)
"the Resolution of Maximum Prices be repealed
, releasing the products reached by this rule in such a way as to advance towards
a single program
.
"
• If the rule is not extended, the business sector undertakes to undertake a
staggered
price recovery
process
in the 6 months after the cancellation or non-renewal.
"In order to implement an economic reactivation plan, we maintain that it is urgent that the government, as it has been doing, work jointly with the representatives of the private sector in the construction of predictability scenarios for which it is necessary to agree on mechanisms of output as the one mentioned above ", states the entity.
"Finally, AmCham Argentina reaffirms the value of free enterprise, of the right to exercise legal industry, to trade, to dispose of private property, as established in article 14 of our National Constitution," he concludes.
NE
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