The Embarrassment of Santa Catarina's Respirators

The government of the State of Santa Catarina found itself in the focus of the news after the suspected corruption scandal in the case of the purchase of 200 respirators, in a deal of 33 million paid in advance by the State. With the Secretary of Health exonerated and the Secretary of the Civil House under investigation for the purchase - without bidding and priced above the market - the scandal is, at the very least, embarrassing for the government. But above all, it is embarrassed (stopped) at customs. Before being made available to citizens of Santa Catarina to assist victims of the covid-19, the respirators - which are of Chinese origin - must go through the entire import process so that they are properly nationalized and released. We in the foreign trade area already know that this does not happen overnight and that, in the case of a medical product, it means the consent of the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA). An agency's consent consists in authorizing it, by issuing and granting an import license by the importer and buyer of the goods in question. First of all, the company must be properly qualified in the Integrated Foreign Trade System (the famous Siscomex) and, depending on the administrative treatment of NCM, it must be registered with the consenting body. We consulted the CNPJ of the company Veigamed, available on the transparency portal, and the company has no authorization from ANVISA to import the items, only the AFE (Authorization for the Operation of a Company) to distribute and store it. According to a report by Diário Catarinense, the company that holds the authorization to import the models of lung ventilators (here called respirators) is called Exxomed, and its CEO claims that they were not consulted about this purchase. During the pandemic, ANVISA, through RDC 356/2020 and 379/2020, dispensed the products to combat COVID-19 for registration, provided they are registered with an IMRDF agency. But at no time did they dispense the “AFE” for pulmonary respirators. In a report by NDmais, the company claims that the first 50 Units are awaiting clearance from the IRS. However, the report finds that the Import Declaration (DI) has not yet been registered, that is, the Revenue inspector cannot release an import that has not been declared for them yet. From this discovery, we returned to the problem of ANVISA and the import license.

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What would be the correct procedure to import these items without embarrassment, at customs or at the media?

The beginning of everything in an import is summarized in three letters: NCM. The tax classification within the Mercosul Common Nomenclature will dictate the import procedures, their taxes and tax benefits. In a quick search, automatic respirators (steel lungs) are classified under NCM 9019.20.40, and we will use this nomenclature and consider that it is a new product to exemplify. In order to obtain LI's authorization, in addition to the company and product needing registration with ANVISA, the importer needs to instruct the following documents with the Import License: Commercial Invoice, Packing List, Bill of Lading, statement by the regularization holder authorizing the third party import and AFE. Once all documents are presented, the agency will analyze it and, if everything is ok, it should authorize the import license. Only with the approved LI number in hand can the customs clearance proceed, and the importer - through his legal representative - proceeds to register the Import Declaration with Siscomex. Only then it will fall to the hands of the IRS. We don't know how the government of SC and the supplier of the respirators will get out of this scandal, but we know very well how to get goods customs cleared. We now hope that the authorities will soon solve this problem without harming Santa Catarina citizens.

Do you want to know more about the import process of products related to the combat of COVID-19? Access our exclusive area for registrants and download the pdf file (in portuguese) with all the details, including classification, taxation and details of the authorization procedure by Anvisa.

Author´s note: embarrassment in portuguese (embaraço) can also means customs´ clerance problems.