[ferro-alloys.com]The Argentinian government imposed tariffs on all exports, including steel products, to avoid a great percentage of exported products following the country's currency devaluation in the past week, President Mauricio Macri said Monday.

The tariff varies between primary products and finished products. For primary products, for every $1 exported, a duty of Argentinian Pesos 4 is charged, while for finished products, for every $1 exported a duty of Pesos 3 is charged.

No breakdown was provided for categories of primary or finished products.

"We know that it is a bad tariff, very bad, that goes against what we want to encourage, which is more exports to encourage more work," Macri said in a video. "But I have to ask them to understand that it is an emergency and we need your input."

Besides the tariffs, Macri said the government will cut its ministries more than 50% and decrease public spending by 4%. All measures are already in place. The goal is to advance the fiscal deficit reduction to zero already in 2019, first expected for 2020.

Argentina is subject to a quota for steel exports to the US under Section 232 as well as aluminum imports. Argentina is able to export 180,000 mt/year of value-added steel and 180,000 mt/year aluminum to the US without facing tariffs.

So far in 2018, Argentina exported 86,054 mt of steel products to the US, down 11.9% from 97,747 mt in the same period of 2017. From January to December 2017, Argentina exported 211,465 mt of steel products to the US -- the highest annual figure since 2013.

Argentina plays an important role supplying finished steel to South American markets. The country does not provide official custom data.

• [Editor:王可]