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Paraguay's maquila regime, enacted under Ley Nº 1064/1997 ("De la Industria Maquiladora de Exportación"), allowed foreign companies to temporarily import inputs and machinery duty-free for processing or assembly, re-exporting the finished product under a 1% tax on Paraguayan value added. Over 28 years it became one of South America's most competitive export-platform instruments, attracting automotive parts, textiles, footwear, and electronics assembly from Brazil, Argentina, and Asian supply chains.
Ley Nº 7547/2025 (approved by the Senate 27 August 2025, Chamber of Deputies 2 September 2025, promulgated by President Santiago Peña 8 September 2025, in force from 9 September 2025) replaces this framework with five structural innovations:
1. Simplified 1% tax base: The maquila tax applies to the higher of (a) value added in Paraguay or (b) the export-invoice value — eliminating the valuation disputes that created compliance friction under the 1997 law.
2. Service maquila modality: Formally recognises a "maquila de servicios" category for offshore-delivered services — software development, call centres, digital BPO, back-office processing, and other remote-tradable activities destined for foreign principals. This is a deliberate pivot to capture the near-shoring shift in global services supply chains, where Paraguay's low-cost electricity (from Itaipú/Yacyretá hydro surplus) and competitive labour structure are structural advantages.
3. Extended 20-year benefit horizon: Programme approvals run for 20 years from initial authorisation, renewable for additional 20-year periods subject to compliance — replacing the shorter approval cycles under the 1997 framework and materially increasing investor planning certainty.
4. Retained duty-free temporary admission: Capital goods and production inputs continue to enter duty-free on a temporary-admission basis; finished-product exporters receive VAT credit refunds, capped at 0.5% of billing or national value-added for service-maquila operations.
5. CNIME governance architecture: The National Council of Maquila Export Industries (CNIME) is established with statutory advisory authority and a dedicated Executive Secretariat, replacing the more fragmented prior administration under MIC and improving the regime's institutional coherence.
A 12-month transition period covers existing programme holders migrating to the new framework. President Peña signed the implementing reglamentary decree in April 2026 at the Blue Design América maquiladora in San Lorenzo, confirming full execution of the policy-to-implementation chain.