Address: Simón Bolivar 1213
Phone: +598 27078589/27058702/27080196
WhatsApp: +598 94 802 966
Montevideo - Uruguay
Address: Pedro García 195
Phone: +595 21 229 050 int. 104
WhatsApp: +595 981999405
Asunción - Paraguay
Benefits of having Uruguay as a regional center.
Uruguay is the main hub for the Southern Cone. It offers significant advantages for the localization of Regional Distribution Centers (CDR). It has a privileged geographic location, with 2 ports at the main entrance of the Southern Atlantic Coast: port of Montevideo and port of Nueva Palmira. This provides access to the Paraná- Uruguay waterway.
The legal system of the country and its trade regulations offer important advantages for the logistic operations Several incentives exist for the installation of CDR and for handling in transit merchandise. This includes Free Zones, Open Port and Open Airport, Bonded Warehouses and Temporary Admissions.
The free zones in Uruguay are fenced and isolated areas, created to promote and develop within its limits, activities of commercial, industrial and service nature.
These activities are exempted of all taxes and not being subject of import duties.
It is about a translation of borders and customs, being the Free Zone territory like a third country allowing to bring merchandise of any origin, by any means and with any destination.
Go to: Chamber of Free Zones of Uruguay
Allows the possibility of adding value to goods without changing their origin, presentation or destination. In addition, the merchandise could be subject to operations that would alter its nature or condition without modifying the origin. These modifications include: assemblies, mixing, placement or replacement o parts or accessories, hardware configuration, software installation, packaging and labels production for the purpose of marketing goods (as long as they will leave the Open Airport), and other similar operations that the Government could establish.
Services associated with goods. We provide the conventional good services as cargo handling, unloading, stowage, unstowage and merchandise moving. In addition, we provide services of transport, transshipment, transit, reembarkation, disposal, storage, repackaging, relabeling, classification, grouping, consolidation, deconsolidation, manipulation and fractioning, inter alia.
The Free port regime includes those ports and terminals capable of receiving ships from overseas, whose respective customs and port areas are legally defined. We can then highlight under this regime the following ports: Montevideo, Fray Bentos and Nueva Palmira among others.
Once determinate their location, it is important to highlight the area of influence (hinterland) of these ports. This is mainly a result of the MERCOSUR as well as the use of the waterway (hidrovía) Parana- Paraguay, which reaches up to 3500 kilometers to the mainland.
Other Advantages
A strategic location, an appropriate legal system, skilled workforce, tariff applicable for the determination of the origin in the scope of the MERCOSUR (requirements set out in Decision 6/94 of the CMC, Common Market Council).
If the merchandise meets these requirements, in the intra-zone commerce, it will be exempt of Common External Tariff (AEC) or the current national tariff in the case of exempted products.
As we saw at the beginning, merchandise or goods from a free zone, entered in the Customs territory of MERCOSUR, for the purpose of customs taxation, will have the same treatment as goods extra-MERCOSUR, under the provisions of the regulation number 8/94 of CMC. This is not a loss of the origin but a differential tax treatment of the goods from this origin.
On the other hand, goods of MERCOSUR origin proceeding from open port, will be treated as such when entering the custom territory of MERCOSUR, since the regulation number 8/94 does not apply to this regime.
Excise duty suspension arrangement: While certificates of origin are valid for 180 days, under the provisions of Article 4 of Directive 12/96 CCM, in the case of goods placed in open port, there is a system of suspense that is applicable for the time that the merchandise is stored. The time limit then begins to run at the moment when the first withdrawal of merchandise takes place, covered by a certificate of origin.
Storage Time: It is extremely important to highlight the fact that goods stored under the open port regime, can remain stored for long periods of time which are renewable.
Taxes applicable to merchandise: The third article of law 16246 establishes that during their stay at the custom port area, all goods are exempt from all taxes and surcharges applicable to imports. In the case of the goods being imported, specified in the third paragraph of Article 69 of decree 455/94, when entering the same port customs exclaves from outside the national territory, they shall be exempt from custom duties, fees and taxes applicable to the importation.
See: Uruguay Open port regime
Address: Simón Bolivar 1213
Phone: +598 27078589/27058702/27080196
WhatsApp: +598 94 802 966
Montevideo - Uruguay
Address: Pedro García 195
Phone: +595 21 229 050 int. 104
WhatsApp: +595 981999405
Asunción - Paraguay