Argentina now lets foods certified in reference countries and Mercosur products enter on a sworn declaration, and in 2026 moved food registration and control to SENASA. Here is the tariff, the taxes on food and drinks, the registration routes, the label rules and the Paraguayan angle.
Food was for decades one of the hardest product groups to bring into Argentina. Every product had to fit the Código Alimentario Argentino (CAA), the national food code, and be registered before the first shipment. Since January 2025 that has changed: foods certified by a list of reference countries — and products from Mercosur — can enter on a sworn declaration, with controls after the goods reach the market. In August 2026 the government went further: Decree 697/2026 concentrated food registration, control and inspection in SENASA, the agrifood health service, with a single national register of food products and establishments.
What has not changed is the tax design described in our Argentina customs guide: duty, a 3% statistics fee, VAT and three prepayments at clearance. Nor have the Spanish-language label and the black front-of-pack warning seals. This guide covers the tariff, the taxes specific to food and drinks, the registration routes, labelling and the Paraguayan angle.
Food falls in NCM chapters 02 to 22 and pays the Mercosur common external tariff (arancel externo común). Like all customs unions, Mercosur escalates its tariff with processing: raw commodities sit at the low end, while packaged, ready-to-sell foods such as confectionery, biscuits, preserves and dairy products are typically in the upper part of the scale. Argentina’s 2025 tariff cuts focused on clothing, electronics and capital goods, not food. Typical extrazone rates (derecho de importación extrazona) on common lines:
| Product (NCM) | Extrazone duty |
|---|---|
| Canned tuna and sardines (1604.13, 1604.14) | 16% |
| Pasta, uncooked (1902.19) | 16% |
| Biscuits, sweet and other bakery (1905.31, 1905.90) | 18% |
| Chocolate and cocoa preparations (1806.32, 1806.90) | 20% |
| Other food preparations (2106.90) | 14–22% by line |
| Green coffee (0901.11) | 10% |
Rates are those Argentina reports for the common external tariff, cross-checked against current calculators where available; confirm the rate on your exact NCM line with your customs broker before pricing.
Mercosur origin
0% duty and no statistics fee with a valid certificate of origin.
Other agreements
Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and others have preference schedules with Mercosur; check whether your line is covered.
Sugar
Remains outside Mercosur free trade and pays duty even from partners.
Trade remedies
Anti-dumping duties are rare in food; since 2025 new measures are capped at three years.
Law and practice: Mercosur common external tariff, applied rates reported by Argentina (WTO/World Bank TRAINS); Decree 33/2025 (trade defence reform).
| Item | Rate | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Import duty | Mercosur common external tariff by NCM line | Escalates with processing; 0% for Mercosur origin |
| Statistics fee | 3%, capped by value band | Mercosur origin exempt |
| VAT | 21% general; 10.5% for certain unprocessed staples (art. 28 list) | Credit for registered importers |
| Additional VAT prepayment | 20% (10% on 10.5% goods) | Credited later |
| Income tax prepayment | 6% (11% for own use) | Credited later |
| Turnover tax prepayment | Usually 2.5% | Credited later |
| Excise (impuestos internos) | Non-alcoholic drinks and syrups 8% (4% for qualifying juice drinks), energy drinks 10% | Only on drinks, not on food |
A short list of unprocessed staples in article 28 of the VAT law — among them fresh, chilled or frozen meat that has not been further processed, fresh fruit and vegetables, and grains and dried pulses — carries the reduced 10.5% VAT, which also halves the additional VAT prepayment. Check the exact wording for your NCM line. Processed foods and drinks pay 21%. Non-alcoholic beverages are the only food-related items with a national excise: 8% on soft drinks, syrups and concentrates, halved for drinks with a minimum fruit-juice content, and 10% on drinks with caffeine and taurine.
| Chocolate, CIF US$100,000 | Non-Mercosur origin (duty 20%) | Mercosur origin |
|---|---|---|
| Import duty | 20,000 | 0 |
| Statistics fee 3% | 3,000 | 0 (exempt) |
| VAT 21% | 25,830 | 21,000 |
| Additional VAT prepayment 20% | 24,600 | 20,000 |
| Income tax prepayment 6% | 7,380 | 6,000 |
| Turnover tax prepayment 2.5% | 3,075 | 2,500 |
| Total paid at clearance | 83,885 (84% of CIF) | 49,500 (50% of CIF) |
| Of which pure cost | 23,000 | 0 |
On chocolate at 20%, the pure cost for a registered importer is the duty and statistics fee, 23% of CIF; the rest is recoverable but must be funded at clearance. A Mercosur product pays neither. The method is the one used in our Argentina customs guide: VAT and prepayments on CIF plus duty and statistics fee.
Law and practice: Law 23,349 (VAT), art. 28; Law 24,674 (impuestos internos), art. 26; Decree 1140/2024 (statistics fee to 31 December 2027).
SENASA
Servicio Nacional de Sanidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria. Since Decree 697/2026 it concentrates food registration, control and inspection, and has always controlled animal and plant health at the border.
Ministry of Health
Keeps the sanitary criteria and leads updates to the CAA, with the Secretariat of Agriculture.
INAL and ANMAT
INAL, the food institute within ANMAT, ran food imports under the 2025 procedures, which ANMAT issued; they remain the reference while the functions move to SENASA.
Provinces
Register local establishments and products and inspect retail; Decree 697/2026 provides for a single national register, database and filing window.
The practical message: existing registrations and authorisations remain valid, and the procedures set in 2025 are the starting point, but the portal and the office handling your file may change during the transition. Check the current route with your broker before filing.
Law and practice: Decree 697/2026 (Boletín Oficial, 3 August 2026), as described in the government announcement of the same date.
| Route | Who uses it | What is filed |
|---|---|---|
| Import notice (aviso de importación) | Foods certified in a reference country of Annex III of Decree 2126/1971 (Australia, Canada, Switzerland, the EU, the US, New Zealand, Israel, Japan, the UK) and Mercosur products | Sworn declaration through the TAD portal, with a free-sale certificate or equivalent from the origin authority, less than one year old |
| Import authorisation (autorización de importación) | Everything else | Establishment registration (RNE) and product registration (RNPA) first, then an authorisation per shipment |
| Food-contact packaging | Containers, films, closures | Packaging approval in addition to the product procedure |
| Animal and plant products | Meat, dairy, fish, fruit, vegetables, grains | SENASA sanitary or phytosanitary import conditions and an official certificate from the exporting country |
The 2025 reform, introduced by Decree 35/2025, amended the decree regulating the CAA so that food certified by the authority of a reference country is deemed to comply with Argentine requirements, without prior incorporation into the CAA. The importer files a sworn import declaration (declaración jurada de importación) and the authority may not ask for more. ANMAT’s implementing rules (Disposición 537/2025) set two procedures: the import notice for reference-country and Mercosur products, and the import authorisation for the rest.
For the authorisation route the importer first needs an RNE (Registro Nacional de Establecimiento), which identifies the importer and its approved warehouse, and an RNPA (Registro Nacional de Producto Alimenticio) for each product, both filed through ANMAT’s SIFeGA system. Registrations already granted remain valid after the move to SENASA; no re-registration is required.
Law and practice: Decree 35/2025 (Boletín Oficial, 20 January 2025), amending Decree 2126/1971; ANMAT Disposición 537/2025; Decree 697/2026.
Both routes run through an Argentine importer: a company with a CUIT, registered as importer with ARCA, with a warehouse approved by the municipality, and — for the authorisation route — holding the RNE. A foreign exporter cannot file in its own name. In practice exporters either sell to an established distributor that already has the registrations, or set up an Argentine company and appoint a technical director where the product category requires one.
Notice route
Filed per product; marketed on filing, with risk-based inspections at the warehouse and at retail.
Authorisation route
Issued per transport document; products cannot be sold until analytical checks are done where required.
Fees
Paid electronically; amounts depend on the procedure and are updated by the authority.
Ownership
Registrations belong to whoever files them; agree in the distribution contract who holds them and what happens on termination.
Every food sold in Argentina must carry a label in Spanish meeting chapter V of the CAA, which follows the Mercosur labelling rules: product name, ingredients, net content, origin, the importer’s name and address, lot, date of minimum durability, preparation and storage instructions, and nutrition information. Foods entering under the reference-country route do not need an RNPA number on the label. Spanish stickers over a foreign label are common in practice; they must be complete and must not hide mandatory information.
On top of that, the front-of-pack labelling law (Ley 27.642, of 2021) requires black octagonal seals reading EXCESO EN sugars, sodium, saturated fat, total fat or calories when a product exceeds the nutrient limits, plus warning legends for products with sweeteners or caffeine. Products with seals face restrictions on marketing aimed at children, and the 2024 ANMAT rules on advertising keep that ban. In December 2024 ANMAT scrapped the online sworn-declaration system for the seals (Disposición 11362/2024), but the seals themselves remain mandatory, for imported and local products alike.
Law and practice: Law 27,642 and Decree 151/2022; ANMAT Disposiciones 11362/2024 and 11378/2024; CAA chapter V.
Meat, dairy, fish, eggs, honey, fruit, vegetables and grains need SENASA’s sanitary or phytosanitary import conditions for the product and origin, and an official certificate from the exporting country’s veterinary or plant-health service. For meat and dairy, the exporting plant usually has to be approved for Argentina. These conditions are country-specific: check that a protocol exists for your product and origin before you sign a contract.
Decree 697/2026 also removes duplicated controls on imports and recognises certification from countries with high-surveillance sanitary systems and from countries applying Codex Alimentarius standards. Faster release places more of the risk on the importer: a product found non-compliant on the shelf can be seized, recalled and sanctioned.
Paraguayan foods that meet Mercosur origin rules enter Argentina with 0% duty and no statistics fee; VAT and the prepayments still apply. Paraguay’s food exports to Argentina are mostly bulk commodities: in 2025, by Paraguay’s figures reported to UN Comtrade, soybeans (about US$1.9 billion), soybean oil (US$308 million) and maize (US$131 million), against about US$14 million of cereal preparations, US$8 million of beef and US$4 million of yerba mate. On the sanitary side, ANMAT’s guidance treats Mercosur products under the same rules as the reference countries, so they can use the import notice rather than the full RNE and RNPA route. For animal and plant products, the certificate comes from Paraguay’s animal-health service (SENACSA) or plant-health service (SENAVE), and the product must be covered by an Argentine import protocol.
Origin
Mercosur certificate of origin; up to 60% non-Mercosur content allowed for Paraguay until 2038 under the special regime.
Sugar
Excluded from Mercosur free trade; check the duty.
Road access
Clorinda–Puerto Falcón and Posadas–Encarnación carry most truck traffic.
Sensitive products
Argentine producers periodically push for restrictions on Paraguayan goods such as yerba mate; no ban is in force.
Law and practice: CMC Decision 06/23; ANMAT guidance on food import procedures.
NCM line, duty, VAT rate and excise for drinks.
Reference-country or Mercosur certificate → notice; otherwise RNE and RNPA.
CUIT, ARCA importer register, approved warehouse.
For animal and plant products, the protocol and the origin certificate.
Spanish, CAA chapter V, front-of-pack seals where nutrient limits are exceeded.
Duty, statistics fee, VAT and prepayments are paid before release.
Decree 35/2025 · ANMAT: food import procedures · Government announcement of Decree 697/2026 · Marval: food import deregulation · El Cronista: front-of-pack labelling changes · Law 24,674 (impuestos internos) · Aduana News: Disposición 537/2025 · World Bank WITS: Argentina applied tariff data · UN Comtrade: Paraguay exports to Argentina
Not always. Foods certified in a reference country listed in Annex III of Decree 2126/1971, and Mercosur products, can enter on a sworn import notice. Other foods need an establishment registration (RNE) and a product registration (RNPA) before import.
Australia, Canada, Switzerland, the EU, the US, New Zealand, Israel, Japan and the UK, with Mercosur products treated under the same rules.
Decree 697/2026, published on 3 August 2026, concentrated food registration and control in SENASA; existing registrations remain valid. The ANMAT procedures of 2025 are still the reference during the transition.
Yes. Law 27,642 applies to imported and domestic packaged foods alike, and the label must be in Spanish.
Typically 14% to 20% from outside Mercosur: for example 16% on canned fish and pasta, 18% on biscuits and 20% on chocolate. Check your exact NCM line.
Duty, a 3% statistics fee, VAT at 21% or 10.5%, and prepayments of VAT, income tax and turnover tax. Soft drinks and energy drinks also pay excise.
No, if they meet Mercosur origin rules and carry a certificate, except sugar. VAT and the prepayments still apply.
No. The filing is made by an Argentine importer with a CUIT, ARCA importer registration and an approved warehouse.
Statistics fee, VAT and three prepayments; FX payment.
Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador compared.
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