Overview
- UIA president Martín Rappallini met Secretary of Industry Pablo Lavigne to discuss competitiveness, financing for struggling sectors, and measures against unfair trade.
- Proposals included letting firms credit employer contributions against VAT, lowering export taxes on industrial goods, and tightening controls on contraband and underinvoicing.
- Techint is evaluating an anti-dumping case after losing a roughly 500-kilometer Vaca Muerta pipeline tender to India’s Welspun with a price about 40% below its bid.
- President Javier Milei intensified criticism of Techint CEO Paolo Rocca, echoed by Minister Federico Sturzenegger’s claim that Techint’s offer was around 40% costlier, as the government stressed market openness.
- The dispute has drawn diplomatic attention from India’s embassy and will proceed through administrative trade channels, with industry groups citing more than 20,000 recent job losses and pressure from low-cost imports.