COMMENT Americas’ challenges in North and South


Now and Then... H


indsight is a luxury, as the old saying goes,


but those esteemed readers familiar with The Duty Free Business’ front page lead in the March


1999 edition may well take a moment to reflect on some of their collective wisdom. ‘Bill opens door to duty free shops across


US’ reads the headline. At the time – and as the headline suggests – legislation sat before the US Senate had the potential to unlock the doors for duty free shops to open anywhere in the country. The bill invariably created a sizeable


opportunity for duty free retailers (such as DFS Group) to broaden their footprints into off-airport markets and leave the door open for them to negotiate with leisure and tourism destinations. Galleria-style outlets? Certainly a taste of things to come... Unsurprisingly, IAADFS backed the


Miscellaneous Trade and Tariff Bill that had already passed its reading in the House of Representatives. The significance of the situation was in marked contrast to the operating conditions at that time; duty free shops in the US could only open in a defined geographical areas, for example, within an acceptable radius of an air or sea port. IAADFS Washington Representative Jon


Kent said at the time: “What it means, for example, is that in Los Angeles DFS can open a store downtown. But it can’t for example, open a store at Disney in Anaheim. This law would change that.” Those in the Americas familiar with this


particular chapter will also be well aware that typically any opportunity to liberalise tax and customs regimes to the benefit of the industry is never without its hurdles. That is certainly the case in LatAm. ASUTIL and the industry is waiting for the first Brazilian land border duty free shops to open. The country’s customs authorities


last year finally granted the necessary permissions to permit them, but the process has suffered from a series of delays. A law originally passed in 2012, but politics


and bureaucracy hampered its passage. Like the US bill, approvals are long and lengthy affairs. ASUTIL has given a strong indication


70 TRBUSINESS


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Retail tenders at Tel Aviv Ben Gurion and Istanbul Atatürk Airports flank the US bill lead.


that a breakthrough could come before the end of this month, but for now, operators including Dufry play the waiting game to discover when they can apply for and open border stores in any of the country’s 32 twin cities that border variously with, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. However, there are other pressing issues


at hand. ASUTIL is also rallying against a resolution to exclude key duty free product sales following a move permitting land border duty free sales among Mercosur bloc countries. While welcoming the resolution in


December to harmonise regulations enabling countries (Mercosur state parties include Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay; Venezuela is currently suspended, while Bolivia is in the process of accession; Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru and Suriname are designated as associated states) to activate free shop regimes on their terrestrial borders, ASUTIL says the details were fleshed out without consulting representatives of the region’s travel retail sector. The Mercosur resolution is due to be


incorporated into state parties’ legal systems by 1 April, but there are likely to be more twists and turns before then. «


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MARCH 2019


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