Silvia Naishtat
03/24/2021 1:34 PM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 03/24/2021 1:34 PM
The inauguration of the United States Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, came with
disturbing news for Argentina.
Raimondo, 49, a businesswoman and a politician with a rising career among Democrats, was one of the first female governors in her case of Rhode Island, where she reformed the pension system.
That is why his words referring to global tariffs and that there will be
"small changes in the short term",
were measured with extreme care this holiday in both Aluar and Techint, the two large aluminum and steel exporting companies, to the that they could re-apply tariffs.
In 2018 Trump
imposed tariffs of 25% on steel imports and 10% on aluminum.
At that time, the Macri government
negotiated quotas based
on steel
exports
during the last three years, which averaged 135,000 tons.
It achieved
35% more and brought them to 180,000 tons
that are strictly complied with and that enter without paying tariffs.
Also the same for aluminum so that it is shipped without restrictions.
That has been maintained until now.
"If it is modified, it would affect us, the United States
is our main buyer
,"
Javier Madanes Quintanilla, president of Aluar, the aluminum leader that exports annually to the northern country for the
equivalent of US $ 500 million
, told
Clarín
.
Close to Techint they toned down Raimondo's statements: "
We cannot measure any impact because there is no precision
and the quotas for steel and aluminum are in force and this also happens with other countries that have exceptions of much larger volume such as Brazil" .
Raimondo specifically referred to section 232 of global tariffs and said it "was effective."
That section on steel and aluminum tariffs was introduced by former President Trump in 2018. And in that context, the Macri government managed to be excluded.
Raimondo
insisted that Biden will review the entire import tariff program.
A fact that does not go unnoticed in what can be read as greater protectionism on the part of Washington, is that the appointment of Raimondo to the head of the powerful Secretary of Commerce was
celebrated by the American Iron and Steel Institute,
which brings together the steel industry. and it is one of the sectors that has vigorously fought against “unfair trade practices by China.
It also transcended
the pressure of the US steel industry and its unions
in defense of production and asking to eliminate advantages to imports from other countries.
It is that with the pandemic, a global overproduction is estimated.
The tariffs, first set during the Trump administration in March 2018, were 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum.
In May of that year, an agreement was reached with Brazil and Argentina.
For Argentina they mean
total exports of US $ 700 million
.
That is what is at stake if that preference is changed.