Imports can be good. They can provide cheap raw materials you need to manufacture something, or give you access to a product you can’t make yourself economically. America’s climate makes it hard to produce things like coffee, cocoa, tea, bananas, vanilla, and spices. So it makes sense for us to import those things, and use the resources that could have spent growing them on producing other things instead, like growing corn, wheat, or soybeans, or manufacturing aircraft or autos.
Argentina’s “President Javier Milei has also been unilaterally lowering trade barriers. As a result of his actions, Argentine consumer goods imports were 55 percent higher in 2025 than the year before,” notes The Doomslayer.
The Financial Times reports:
Argentines are scooping up Lego sets, Apple computers and Stanley thermoses from abroad, as libertarian president Javier Milei’s efforts to open the closed economy prompt a flood of foreign goods.
Total consumer goods imports jumped 55 per cent in 2025 on the previous year, reaching a record high of $11.4bn, according to official data.
Argentines also bought around three times more goods from overseas via international ecommerce platforms in 2025 than in 2024, reaching a record $955mn, as companies such as Amazon, Shein and Temu gained a foothold in the country for the first time.
The increase comes as Milei cuts tariffs and a web of import restrictions introduced by previous governments to protect domestic industries, which made foreign goods rare and expensive in Argentina.
Argentina is exporting more agricultural products than it used to. Rather than trying to produce everything it consumes, it is importing more things and exporting more things to pay for those imports. Grain exports rose 40% in 2024, and corn exports rose 71%. Soy exports rose to a 7-year high in 2025. Exports of wheat, peanuts, and sunflower also rose in 2025.
Argentina’s economy grew by more than 4% in 2025, after many years of economic decline or slow growth prior to the election of its current president.
