Russell Fraker Discusses New Argentinian Trade Rules with Chemical Watch

Of Counsel Russell Fraker (Washington, DC) recently spoke to Chemical Watch about Argentina’s new import framework, Decree 892, which will allow consumer products requiring technical or safety certification to enter the country provided they comply with foreign regulatory standards. Argentina will now accept declarations of compliance with the standards of jurisdictions including Australia, the EU, Israel, Japan, the UK, and the US. This marks a significant shift away from long-standing domestic certification requirements which restricted imports into Argentina.

In, "Argentina to recognise certifications from specified countries for certain imported goods," Russell said that the decree “brings a dramatic change to Argentina’s import policies,” since Argentina has historically imposed unique certification requirements for various products, often without effective exemptions for non-commercial or low-volume imports that other jurisdictions’ rules commonly exclude.

Russell explained that Decree 892 “discontinues those restrictions altogether for most industrialised goods and replaces that regime with broad acceptance of compliance with other countries’ policies as sufficient.” However, certain categories of goods are excluded from the decree, including those governed by special laws that impose separate quality accreditation requirements. Russell noted that this provision “may require careful case-by-case analysis to interpret that and determine which types of goods that refers to."

Beveridge & Diamond’s Consumer Products and Product Stewardship, Global Supply Chains practices counsel U.S. and multinational companies that manufacture, distribute, transport, or sell consumer goods in today’s fast-paced and evolving marketplace