Faced with this very serious situation and following the complaints made by trade unionists in conjunction with the CGT and the CATT, The Government took action on the matter. As Ámbito learned, on Monday the National Minister of Transport, Alexis Guerrera, met separately with directors of Argentine shipping companies and trade unionists to begin to unravel the crisis.
In these meetings, between face-to-face and virtual, the conclusion was reached that the situation is terminal and that measures must be taken as soon as possible. For this reason, by mandate of Guerrera, workshops will be opened this week and the following with national officials, technical staff, trade unionists and national businessmen to define the best solutions.
Participants in the talks agreed that the minister intends to dictate the rules, regulations, resolutions and provisions to once once more have a proper merchant marine. “There has never been a minister as receptive as this one. He is 100% receptive and is desperate to bring the solution to the President”, defined one of those summoned.
Trade unionists and businessmen told Guerrera that the merchant marine should be, like in the rest of the countries, a “priority” of the national State and they warned him regarding the weakness of taking measures “patch following patch”, because “they do not work”. One of them recalled that Maruba, the shipping company that took the Piray Guazu to cut costs, had a fleet of 50 ships. The minister replied that it should be a priority for him and showed himself strong enough to “put up the fight that is necessary,” the witnesses said.
“If it depended on him, it would be quite a fact, but he clarified that a fight must be fought with the different Ministries that correspond,” said another guest, because maritime regulations go through various state agencies such as the Ministry of Economy, Productive Development, Customs and AFIP.
As this media was able to find out, last week when the CGT and the CATT brought up Alberto Fernández and Guerrera, the president entrusted the minister to bring him the corresponding projects in 15 days to reach an immediate permeable solution. “We agreed to make a work table with businessmen, unions and the corresponding officials, to outline the titles. Then the minister will take the projects to the President and only then will work be done on the drafting of the necessary regulations, ”said one of the sources consulted by this means.
They do not rule out that the quick initiative comes out of a DNU, although a new federal transport law might also be promoted in the long term, to replace the Merchant Marine Law 27,419, sanctioned and vetoed during the macrismo. “The minister has to go with concrete ideas and discuss with the President what the legal instruments will be to take the measures. We know that the President asked you to give urgency to the issue”, added the naval industry expert.
In the sector they lament the fall from grace of the Law and blame the macrismo for the final deterioration of the merchant marine. “We have been talking regarding the same thing for 20 years, always with good intentions, but with the aggravating circumstance that when the Merchant Marine Law came out in 2017, Nicolás Dujovne vetoed the backbone of the law and a rule was left that is a void, nothingness itself,” said one of the men who spoke with the minister.
Of every 100 ships that circulate today on the Paraná River to Asunción, only 3 or 4 are units that display the Argentine flag. If the ships are not from Paraguay, most are from Panama or the Ivory Coast, which offer more attractive conditions to companies for hiring personnel. A national company has to pay Value Added Tax (VAT) for fuel, Gross Income Tax and other property taxes, in addition to the fact that the cost of local labor is higher. In addition, a labor lawsuit is resolved in the courts of the flag country, which makes it difficult for the unions to defend the workers.
Sources from the Ministry of Transport highlighted that in the meetings “we listen to everyone” and promised that “everything will be done, together with the unions, the companies and all the actors together with the State to take care of the sector.” As a first measure, Guerrera gave the go-ahead to the Regulatory Decree of the National Entity for Control and Management of the Waterway, led by the mayor of Escobar in use of license, Ariel Sujarchuk, and the formation of the Board of Directors. As it was known, Guerrera and Sujarchuk have already agreed on the “strategic objectives” to defend the country’s interests in terms of national sovereignty and the development of the different regional economies crossed by the Paraná and Paraguay rivers.
The Entity, of an autarchic nature, was created with DNU 556/21 and will have the participation of the seven riverside provinces, an event that has not occurred in the last 26 years. The measure originated as a direct result of the formation of the Federal Waterway Council, to protect public assets and carry out the national and international bidding process for the award of works in the 1,635 km. of waterways to the Atlantic Ocean.
In the Council of the Entity there will be members from Buenos Aires, Chaco, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Formosa, Misiones and Santa Fe. But at the same time a non-binding Advisory Commission will be created, made up “ad honorem” by representatives of public universities, users and trade unions, and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Environment, Security and Public Works.
The new national Entity will seek to reduce costs per transported ton, using the waterway at all times throughout the year, increasing navigation safety, planning and developing activities with less uncertainty and promoting investment and the development of enterprises around the river. Paraná and the Río de la Plata.
The urgent measures being analyzed
About the merchant marine in particular The alternative of setting a progressive percentage of cargo reservation for national flag vessels and tax benefits similar to those applied to mining is analyzed.. It would start with a minimum of 5% mandatory load for Argentine vessels, with a reduction in costs with the reduction of VAT, Gross Income and Check Tax, for example.
“The first impact should be small, with a progressive board. Foreigners cannot be charged anything, you have to be competitive and show that you are reliable. We must have regulations that respect the Argentine flag and that give strength to the national merchant marine, but that resist global circumstances”, summed up an important player in the commercial marine.
In order to repatriate the “runaway” ships in the new regulations, it should be considered that the final beneficiary of the cargo reserve is a company with national capital, and not a local corporation created by foreigners, who then send their profits to the parent companies. .
Currently, just because of the current labor regime, Argentine ships are 50% more expensive than Paraguayan or Panamanian ships, to which is added VAT on fuel and other taxes on wealth, while in Paraguay between 7% and 9% for all items. In Argentina today the cost of transporting merchandise by river is more than double that of other countries.
Another aspect that might be taken into account is the launch of new subsidized lines of credit for the purchase of new vessels or refurbishment of existing ones. The Merchant Marine Law 27,419 sanctioned on November 29, 2017 and enacted on December 21, 2017 included improvements in naval credit, through maritime privileges and the naval mortgage. However, despite the fact that the Central Bank improved the rating of the naval mortgage as a Class B Preferred Guarantee at that time, today it is in a seventh step and there is no financing.
The naval mortgage is a form of guarantee that is contractually constituted and must be recorded in a duly authenticated public or private document and registered in the National Ship Registry, giving rise to a real right in favor of the mortgagee, although this regulation ends being a fairly relative guarantee. The naval mortgage, although it is not an original institution and proper to maritime law, in it offers an adaptation, by constituting an important exception to Common Law, the fact of mortgaging something that is not real estate.
A study on naval credit signed by specialists on Navigation Law Hugo Jorge Rivarola, Paula González Boarini and Nelly Baigorria warned that article 35 of Law 27,419 established modifications to the old regulations (on article 476 of the Law of Navigation ) and remarked that it was included in “paragraph c)” that the credits for the construction of the ship of a mortgage or pledge nature are now privileges in the first place over the ship.
“(This measure seeks) to give priority to the credits granted for the construction of ships in our country and in this way promote the development of the shipping activity. And that the creditors have the certainty that for any contingency they will be preferred in the order of payment, according to the established order”, the specialists underlined.
With transfer fees, ship mortgages and tax benefits, it is estimated that some 340 ships over 30 years old might be renovated over the next 15 years in Argentine shipyards. But in addition, if in two weeks the instruments appear to refloat the merchant marine, it is estimated that the owners of vessels with “provisional dismissals” to other countries will return immediately. “When you have the framework, the national entrepreneur appears,” they say in the sector.
Today, excluding oil tankers, only one container ship and one general cargo ship sail under the blue and white flag.
