LatinNews Daily - 30 January 2024

*Argentina’s trade secretary, which sits under the economy ministry, has announced the elimination of 69 regulations that “provided an obstacle to commercial relations in the internal market and promote an interventionist role of the State”. The trade secretary, Pablo Lavigne, repealed the regulations via a resolution (51/2024) issued in the official gazette. In a statement, the trade secretary said that the lifting of the regulations aims to “reduce bureaucracy, simplify the flow of information from society to the State, eliminate overlaps and repetitions detected in the regulations, and promote necessary adjustments”. Affected regulations include those governing the stocking of supermarket shelves, compliance with price cap agreements, and the supply of goods. The resolution also repealed all rules contained in the previous government’s price control programmes ‘Precios Cuidados’ and ‘Precios Justos’ which the trade secretary said “only served to distort the price system, mainly of food and beverages in our country”. The government of President Javier Milei stated that these repeals would be followed by other similar measures. “The purpose of these measures is to simplify trade, to reduce bureaucracy in the management of the State, and to prevent citizens and companies from wasting time and resources sending unnecessary information,” said Lavigne.