Argentina Resolución 531/2026: Anti-Dumping Scope Exclusion for Disassembled Sports Footwear from China

Mechanism

Resolución 915/2021 (Secretaría de Industria, Economía y Producción) imposed anti-dumping protection on all sports footwear from China via a minimum FOB value of USD 15.70 per pair across HS codes 6401.10.00 through 6405.90.00. Any Chinese shipment arriving below that floor triggered an automatic anti-dumping duty.

Resolución 531/2026 closes a changed-circumstances review initiated under Law 24,425 (WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement) and Decree 33/2025, acting on a CNCE recommendation that the market conditions justifying the 2021 AD package no longer hold for the disassembled-kit segment. The exclusion carves out from the USD 15.70/pair floor: "calzado deportivo presentado desmontado o sin montar, con suela y/o parte superior fabricada con materiales distintos al cuero natural." Standard assembled sports footwear and non-sport footwear remain fully within the Res. 915/2021 perimeter.

The operative mechanism is a product-scope exclusion rather than a rate reduction or sunset review — the AD instrument remains in force; only the physical description of in-scope goods is narrowed. This is structurally distinct from a full AD revocation and requires no WTO notification as a new measure.

Downstream implications

• CNCE precedent template: Establishes a replicable path for the Milei government to

functionally dismantle protectionist AD stock through product-scope exclusions without triggering WTO dispute risk or formal repeal of parent statutes. Argentina has over 300 active anti-dumping measures, predominantly targeting Chinese goods; this precedent is potentially high-leverage if extended.

• Domestic footwear assembly: Topper and Puma Sports Argentina — both major assemblers

operating in Buenos Aires and Santa Fe — sought the exclusion specifically to import Chinese disassembled kits for high-performance running and basketball lines. Assembly operations add ~20% value in-country and maintain employment; the exclusion restores their competitiveness against fully-assembled imports from third countries not subject to the AD floor.

• Sino-Argentine footwear-component trade flow: Restores duty-free (or standard-tariff)

access to Chinese footwear components for the disassembled-kit segment, reversing the import compression imposed by the 2021 minimum-value floor. Effect is sector-bounded; the broader AR-CN footwear trade relationship is not materially altered.

• Milei deregulation architecture: Sits alongside DNU 70/2023 (omnibus deregulation),

DNU 269/2025 (FX liberalisation / cepo removal), and Super-RIGI (2026-05-26) as evidence of the Milei administration using multiple institutional channels — executive decrees, CNCE recommendations, and ministerial resolutions — to dismantle legacy interventionism. Each instrument uses the narrowest available legal authority, preserving deniability on WTO compliance.

Open questions

• Will CNCE issue further changed-circumstances reviews for other legacy AD measures under

the same Decree 33/2025 framework? The Res. 531/2026 methodology is directly replicable.

• Does the exclusion extend to partially-assembled kits or only fully-disassembled sets?

The regulation's language ("presentado desmontado o sin montar") may leave hybrid assembly stages in a grey zone requiring AFIP/Aduana clarification.

• Topper and Puma benefited; have domestic leather-footwear producers (who retain full AD

protection) signalled opposition that could trigger a reversal under a future government?