The Federal Court of Appeals has directed Customs to allow the import of certain goods without prior presentation of the "Import Prior Sworn Statement".

On August 16, 2012, Room II of the Federal Court of Appeals on Contentious and Administrative Matters ruled in re: "Yudigar Argentina S.A." that the Customs Authority should permit the processing and clearance of certain goods for which the necessary "Import Prior Sworn Statement" (DJAI) had not yet been approved.

The company had filed an application for a DJAI and, after a six-month period, it was still pending resolution, with a status of "observed".

For its decision, the Higher Court, which confirmed the Lower Court's decision, took into account the following:

  1. That the six-month delay in deciding on the approval of the DJAI exceeded the established period of time specified in the resolution which created the regime.
  2. That the way in which the procedure is being carried out (by means of a computer- based system) does not allow importers to follow up and expedite the procedure since the reasons why their applications are being "observed" are not explained to them and that the Secretariat of Commerce has still given no explanation for such reasons, thus leaving importers in a serious state of defenseless.
  3. That the purpose that the DJAI regime is seeking is only a matter of obtaining data for merely informative purposes and that there is no existence of tax implications; and
  4. That the unjustified delay, as well as affecting the company's commercial activities, is making it incur in high storage costs.

The Court's decision is of great significance since it has been one of the first precedents in connection with the controversial DJAI system imposed by the Argentine Government at the beginning of 2012, and it might seem that case law will be following the same pro- importer reasoning as regards actions for protective measures as the one for cases of non-automatic licenses, which has been in force for several years.

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