BORDER SHOPS
shops to open at any of the country’s 32 twin-cities bordering variously with Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, French Guiana, Uruguay, Guyana, Venezuela and Suriname. Administrative delays have hampered Brazil land border
shop openings since approval was granted in 2018, with six shops opening last year. A further seven were meant to open in 2020. During a September ‘Route to Recovery’ webinar hosted
by the Duty Free World Council, attendees were provided with an update on the South America border shops trade. The Asociación Sudamericana de Tiendas Libres (ASUTIL)
confirmed that border shops in Latin America are opening and traffic is ‘slowly recovering’, including at the twin cities. Among the initiatives undertaken by ASUTIL, it has called
on the Brazilian government to update allowances for Brazilians at border shops to harmonise with the allowances for those visiting from different countries. Additionally, ASUTIl has issued a joint statement with the
Brazilian National Association of Airport Concessionaires and a letter to government requesting a reduction in costs associated with obtaining IT information for border shops. Such information is handled by Serpro, which administers
government IT infrastructure and applies a fixed rate to access a database offering information on land border duty free transactions. A letter has been sent to the Uruguay government
regarding facilitating the pre-sale of airport duty free goods before travelling and the possibility of selling products to local people paying a tax at the borders. In addition, duty free operators have joined a workforce
aligned to customs to modernise duty free legislation, including evaluating the possibility of duty free home delivery.
Levelling the playing field ASUTIL Secretary General José Luis Donagaray discussed the purchasing reaction since border shops reopened in South America during a recent webinar hosted by the association. In Brazil, work is continuing apace to support border shop
operators with regular meetings taking place to discuss support measures aimed at government. “The average ticket is more or less 51% above $100, the rest
are below $100,” confirmed Donagaray. Donagaray said there are two things that are not helping
business development. “If you buy from the Argentina or Paraguay side the
allowance is $500, but allowances inside Brazilian stores [for Brazilians] is $300 so people are buying big things on the
Sky Duty Free inaugurated a duty free land border store in Foz do Iguacú, Brazil in May.
OCTOBER 2020 TRBUSINESS 41
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