Argentina Decreto 563/2025 — Mining-sector export duties cut to 0% on 231 NCM positions; copper-export registry repealed

Mechanism

Argentina's Derecho de Exportación (DEX) regime levies an ad-valorem export duty on declared FOB value at the moment of registration of the export shipping permit (Permiso de Embarque). Until 7 August 2025 most mining-sector NCM positions sat at a baseline 4.5% rate inherited from the 2018 fiscal-emergency package and partially rolled back under the Macri-era export-incentive law.

Decreto 563/2025 takes the executive route — using the delegated tariff authority of Article 755 of the Código Aduanero — to set the DEX rate to zero on the 231 NCM positions enumerated in Annex IF-2025-80536077- APN-SM#MEC. The annex bundles three blocks:

• Construction minerals (~USD 55M of 2024 exports): limestone,

granite, dolomite, marble, slate, gypsum, etc.

• Non-metallic minerals (~USD 61M of 2024 exports): borates,

bentonite, lime, perlite, diatomite, salts, and similar industrial minerals.

• Metallic mining goods (~USD 74M of 2024 exports): copper ores

and concentrates, iron ore, lead concentrates, zinc concentrates, and selected refined products.

The decree is one of the main fiscal complements to RIGI (2024-07-08- argentina-rigi-large-investment-incentive-regime). RIGI guarantees a 30-year stability shield on duties, taxes, and FX rules for individual project vehicles ("VPUs") committing ≥ USD 200M of capex; Decreto 563 lays a sector-wide DEX floor at zero so that smaller, non-RIGI projects and existing producers also benefit, and so RIGI's fiscal-stability guarantee binds against a 0% baseline rather than a 4.5% one.

A second, less-noticed effect is the explicit repeal of Decreto 308/2022. The 2022 decree had created an Optional Copper Export Registry under the prior Fernández administration as a vehicle to administer differentiated duties on the Vicuña / Los Azules / Josemaría / MARA copper-development pipeline; the registry never received a single beneficiary. Repealing it simplifies the legal landscape for Argentina's nascent copper export build-out (first cathode tonnage projected 2027–2028).

Severity basis

Severity 4 (mixed). Quant inputs:

• Direct revenue forgone of roughly ARS-equivalent USD 8M/yr on the

2024 export base (~USD 190M × 4.5%), small relative to total fiscal envelope.

• Forward in-scope export flow ramps materially as the Vicuña / Los

Azules / Josemaría / MARA copper projects come online — Secretaría de Minería projects mining exports rising from ~USD 4B in 2024 to USD 18–22B by 2030, of which the copper pipeline alone targets ~USD 8B/yr at steady state.

• Indefinite duration (no sunset clause).

Qual inputs:

• Sector-wide structural shift in net-of-tax mining economics, not a

single-project carve-out.

• Reinforces Argentina's positioning as a market-friendly counterpoint

to the Indonesia/DRC/Chile resource-nationalist template.

Downstream implications

• Copper-development pipeline: Vicuña, Los Azules, Josemaría, and

MARA all now run on a 0% DEX baseline plus RIGI VPU stability. Counter-tilts the historical premium of Chilean copper basis vs. Argentine projects.

• Lithium: silver and lithium retain a 4.5% rate under Annex

carve-outs, preserving the lithium royalty-and-DEX differential that funds provincial mining royalties in Jujuy / Salta / Catamarca. Worth verifying once the full Annex text is parsed.

• Trade-balance composition: shifts marginal export upside toward

metallic mining and away from soybean-complex (whose DEX rates remain at 33%/26%) — a notable rebalancing of the export-tax base.

• Provincial fiscal: provinces retain the 3% mining royalty under

Ley 24.196; the DEX cut is a federal-level instrument and does not alter provincial revenue.

Open questions

• Full NCM-level annex text — particularly whether silver (HS 7106) and

lithium-bearing positions (HS 2530.90, 2825.20, 2836.91) are in or out of the 231-line list. The aggregate news framing ("0% on mining") conflicts with the queue-note carve-out claim; needs a primary-text parse before downstream consumers (etfImpact, RIGI cross-references) inherit the wrong baseline.

• Whether Congress challenges the decree under delegated-faculties

procedure (already referred to the Comisión Bicameral Permanente).

• Whether any future amendment narrows the scope back if fiscal

conditions tighten — Argentine DEX rates have historically moved on multi-year cycles tied to the IMF programme.