Concerning in the sector of the printing industry about surcharges on 41 items

There is concern in the sector of the Ecuadorian printing industry due to tariff surcharges on 41 items

The president of the Chamber of the Printing Industry of Guayas (cIgG), Nathan Guy, and the president of the Association of Industrial Graphics Pichincha-AIG, Mauricio Miranda, said that the printing industry is against the tariff surcharges applied to 41 of the 49 subheadings disposed for the sector.

The national industry can produce notebooks, which is one of the subheadings levied with a surcharge of 45%, but items such as chemical or self-copy paper, film, foil, printing machines, copiers, and other filters are among the subheadings, whose import will imply the payment of surcharges of between 5% and 45%.

In the case of machines, production processes get more expensive, for being goods that are not produced in the country, said Nathan Guy. The use of items such as thread to sew books, movies and self-copy paper is key especially at artisanal level, sector that will receive the greatest impact of surcharges

Almost 90% of the raw material of the printing sector is imported and “a temporary restriction on these inputs would cause the paralysis of the industry, layoffs and business closures,” said CIGG and IDA representatives.