The national official He rubs his hands in his office. He speaks of the increased external competition with which the government is trying to reduce the consumption of household appliances by Argentines and, in particular, to attract more options from other parts of the world compared to what is produced through industrial support in Tierra del Fuego. And at that moment he blurts out: “And now in January the televisions are arriving from Egyptso the supply will continue to grow.”
Strictly speaking, Javier Milei’s government will not be in vain completed on time. On August 2, 2010, Mercosur signed a free trade agreement with the Republic of Egypt, which came into force on September 1, 2017. It was the trading bloc’s first agreement with an Arab country, allowing and granting access to various markets.
The pact called for the “full reduction” of tariffs on more than 90% of trade in agricultural and industrial goods between both parties, with a reciprocal reduction plan divided into five baskets.
Within this framework, it was expected that 31% of tariff lines would reach zero tax in 8 years, i.e. next year, in order to enter the bloc. These goods include televisions “made in Egypt”a product that, according to the government’s calculations, will appear in the country in an environment of commercial openness, a low dollar and declining household appliances, with an addition specifically for this area: it will coincide with the year of a football World Cup, where TV sales have skyrocketed in the past.
TV manufacturers are aware of the news and are currently analyzing the possible impact on local supply. According to the Afarte Chamber of Equipment Manufacturers, the weight of local television production compared to imports has not changed for the time being.
While 1.4 million televisions were sold between January and September 2024 and this year sales rose to 2.4 million units, the ratio remains intact: 95% are manufactured domestically, 5% are imported.
Egypt has had a Samsung monitor and television factory since 2012when the Korean-origin company entered a 360,000 square meter plot gifted to it by the government in the town of Beni Surf. From then on, the company became a very strong competitor throughout the Middle East and began exporting to various parts of the world.
“We know that Samsung is based in Egypt, but we have to see how competitive they can be to penetrate the Argentine market,” they said in the local sector, given the new competition that is coming. In the same city south of Cairo there are also other brands that produce televisions and monitors, such as LG and the Chinese Konka, but also mobile phones, all products that are now appearing on Argentina’s radar from abroad.
The arrival of televisions from Egypt, as well as refrigerators and washing machines and even turnkey warehouses and buses from Chinaare part of the landscape of the end of 2025 and a postcard of what could come in the next two years of the Milei government.
While the government sees this as an example of greater competition favoring to consumers with discounts on popular goodsThe industry warns of the possibility of a massacre of companies forced to close, leaving people on the streets because it is unable to compete with companies that receive government subsidies and pay wages well below local wages.
From the establishment, some voices such as that of Paolo Rocca, chairman of the Techint organization, have expressed the need for an “industrial policy” to create a “level playing field” so that local production can resist the avalanche of imports, especially from various Asian countries with China at the forefront.
In the last hours, the Minister of Economy Luis Caputo said: ““The best industrial policy is the one that doesn’t exist” and emphasizes that the function of the executive branch is to maintain the macroeconomic order, without, however, referring to what to do with the arrival of Chinese products that border on unfair competition, which concerns, for example, the official ally, the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
In the electricity sector in particular, the government has reduced tariffs for all imported goods which can compete on the market with those produced in Tierra del Fuegoa policy that will be deepened from January with new general discounts.
For example, look at the universe of mobile phones. In May, Decree 333 reduced import duties from 16% to 8%, and from January 15th they will be completely abolished.
So a combination of more imported supply with lower taxes and a fall in demand as a result of the fall in income ultimately led to a fall in prices not seen in a long time. According to the consulting firm Ecosur Smartphones are down 17% this year and the decline could be greater in 2026.
A postcard of this new context at the end of the year can be seen in the advertising posters on public streets: the offer of various companies offering quotas buy the latest iPhone, in some cases at the same price as locally manufactured phones.
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