Import restrictions in Argentina: the transformation of trade policy between 2004–2023

Abstract

This study analyzes the evolution of trade administration in Argentina between 2004 and 2023, focusing on import management and its connection with the performance of industrial manufacturing. The methodological strategy combines a qualitative-quantitative longitudinal design, based on regulatory document analysis and the use of statistical time series and macroeconomic variables. In the early years, trade policy was guided by an industrialist logic, aimed at protecting domestic production, fostering employment, and rebuilding the manufacturing structure after the 2001 crisis. However, the global financial crisis of 2008 marked a turning point: trade administration became more complex and increasingly subordinated to macroeconomic priorities. The regulatory framework reveals an institutional shift in which import restrictions ceased to be merely a sectoral tool and instead functioned as a mechanism to defend the balance of payments and safeguard the Central Bank’s international reserves. Under the rationale of maintaining a “balanced trade account,” measures sought to stabilize the exchange rate and contain inflation, thereby protecting purchasing power. Yet this strategy produced a critical contradiction: Argentina’s productive matrix is highly dependent on imported inputs, so what initially benefited national industry eventually became an obstacle to its expansion and modernization. As a result, trade policy was subordinated to macroeconomic urgencies, exposing the absence of a structural transformation in the country’s external insertion.