This week the Argentine government announced that written legal documents must be submitted to the tax agency, AFIP, ahead of approving imports. The measure becomes effective next February first.
Argentine manufacturers immediately reacted and said that the latest measures to closely monitor imports pose limitations and “put national industry under risk” for which the government should find a balance.
“Limitations always provoke reactions and worries among the affected sector. I do understand the government’s need to control imports in order to protect our domestic industry and the foreign currency reserves; it should look for reaching a healthy balance” said the former head of the Argentine Industrial Union Héctor Mendez during a radio interview.
Méndez also recalled that Argentine domestic industry depends heavily on imports. “My expertise in the plastic industry, where it currently takes one and a half years to bring a plastic injection mould is an example of what I’m saying. So, I can assure that in case imports stop or get blocked, I’ll have to stop all factory production.”
“It’s a delicate situation. At this point Argentina should have learnt what the cons of foreign dependence are. But it seems not to be the case. This is a country in which cars, just to give an example, are manufactured with 70% of their materials being imported. There is still much to be done in order to achieve a true national industry.”
Importers also questioned the Argentine government measure that sets a greater control on purchases made abroad.
Head of the Chamber of Importers of Argentina (CIRA), Diego Pérez Santisteban, bashed the measure: “More than 80% of imports go toward production in Argentina... given that there isn’t the fluency necessary for importing these types of products, there will be further problems ahead,” he said.
The CERA exporters’ chamber also asked the AFIP to “suspend” the resolution, which requires an advance import sworn statement to be submitted to the agency, and that the importing sector is calling a “super license”.
2012年1月12日星期四
2011年12月26日星期一
Have yourself a yummy yuletide
"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."- Charles Schulz
Sweets might be outdated but people have a sweet tooth for chocolate as it is the hot favourite this season. This winter vaction can be the right time to make home-made chocolates, which you can gift your friends and neighbours for New Year.
“Children love gifting chocolates made by them to their friends. It's a proud feeling for them,” shares Anju Jain, a professional chocolate maker in the city. “Nowadays, imported chocolate mix bars are available in every supermarket. Melting these chocolates and pouring them into plastic or aluminium moulds is the shortest and easiest procedure for young chocolate makers,” she adds.
This procedure of chocolate-making works for children because it helps avoid the hassle of measurements and mixing.
Do it yourself
For a Do It Yourself set of home-made chocolate presents you need to first buy a ready-mix chocolate bar.
Various brands of milk and dark chocolate are available in most supermarkets.
You need to melt the chocolate bar and pour it into plastic or metallic moulds. Moulds are available in a great number of shapes and sizes.
While filling dry-fruits pour some melted chocolate in the mould, add roasted dry-fruit of your choice and then pour melted chocolate again. This ensures that there are no air gaps in the final product.
Freeze the mould with the filling for 15 minutes.
Remove the chocolates now ready to eat from the mould and wrap them in wrapping paper.
Use chart paper, scissors and glue to make gift hampers to hold the chocolates you made.
One kilogram of chocolate mix bar makes approximately 100 chocolate with a medium-sized chocolate mould.
It is important to note that water can dilute the chocolate and alter its taste.
So make sure you don't spill any water while preparing chocolates and follow basic safety precautions.
Cocoa powder and chocolate are made from the seeds of the cocoa tree.
In classical Greek, this tree is known as ‘theobroma cacao' which means “food of the gods.”
West African Countries such as Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Ghana, Brazil and Ecuador from Latin America, and Malaysia and Indonesia in Asia are major cocoa growing countries in the world.
Many a novel has been inspired by chocolate, such as Roald Dahl's “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” as also “Chocolat” written by Joanne Harris.
Sweets might be outdated but people have a sweet tooth for chocolate as it is the hot favourite this season. This winter vaction can be the right time to make home-made chocolates, which you can gift your friends and neighbours for New Year.
“Children love gifting chocolates made by them to their friends. It's a proud feeling for them,” shares Anju Jain, a professional chocolate maker in the city. “Nowadays, imported chocolate mix bars are available in every supermarket. Melting these chocolates and pouring them into plastic or aluminium moulds is the shortest and easiest procedure for young chocolate makers,” she adds.
This procedure of chocolate-making works for children because it helps avoid the hassle of measurements and mixing.
Do it yourself
For a Do It Yourself set of home-made chocolate presents you need to first buy a ready-mix chocolate bar.
Various brands of milk and dark chocolate are available in most supermarkets.
You need to melt the chocolate bar and pour it into plastic or metallic moulds. Moulds are available in a great number of shapes and sizes.
While filling dry-fruits pour some melted chocolate in the mould, add roasted dry-fruit of your choice and then pour melted chocolate again. This ensures that there are no air gaps in the final product.
Freeze the mould with the filling for 15 minutes.
Remove the chocolates now ready to eat from the mould and wrap them in wrapping paper.
Use chart paper, scissors and glue to make gift hampers to hold the chocolates you made.
One kilogram of chocolate mix bar makes approximately 100 chocolate with a medium-sized chocolate mould.
It is important to note that water can dilute the chocolate and alter its taste.
So make sure you don't spill any water while preparing chocolates and follow basic safety precautions.
Cocoa powder and chocolate are made from the seeds of the cocoa tree.
In classical Greek, this tree is known as ‘theobroma cacao' which means “food of the gods.”
West African Countries such as Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Ghana, Brazil and Ecuador from Latin America, and Malaysia and Indonesia in Asia are major cocoa growing countries in the world.
Many a novel has been inspired by chocolate, such as Roald Dahl's “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” as also “Chocolat” written by Joanne Harris.
2011年5月15日星期日
Does this make YOUR WAIST smaller?
How would you like to lose four inches off your waist in two minutes? Poof! Elizabeth Joyce of Callisto Couture Custom Corsets can make it happen.
"I have a 24-inch waist, but when it's laced up all the way in a corset, it's only 20 inches," says our corset model, Winnipeg burlesque entertainer Miss Angela La Muse. She owns a midnight-blue number with black trim and Swarovski crystals made by the Exchange District entrepreneur.
"The most difference I've seen in a corseted waist was nine inches smaller, and that was a man. But it was a man who was used to wearing corsets," says 39-year-old Joyce, who creates the fantasy garments start to finish.
Here's how it works: The steel or modern plastic "boning" cinches the entire core of the body and quite tightly at the waist. Someone near and/or dear to you can pull the lacing in the back and tie it firmly, or you can lace it ahead of time and do up the front closure yourself. Hey, presto! Madame (or Monsieur) has a slimmed waistline. And one can still breathe, though gently.
You'll want to take a deep breath before reading this, though. Ms. Joyce charges $800 and up for these custom garments, which take up to 40 hours make. They also require exotic materials "from weaving countries around the world." She notes her customers are often "confident women in their 40s and 50s with disposable income."
In fact, her website, www.callistocouture.ca, includes praise from the likes of Winnipeg philanthropist Gail Asper. "Exactly one year to the day I opened my business, Gail was photographed on the red carpet in Ottawa in one of my corsets. I took it as a sign I was at the right place in my career."
Any difficulty getting customers in Winnipeg at those prices? "No, I haven't noticed any," smiles Joyce, who works in a romantic lilac-coloured factory at 506-63 Albert St.
"I make the shape out of stiff German Cotil which won't rip or give way and insert custom-sized steel or plastic boning, in the place of whalebone used in the old days," she says.
Different parts of the garment, such as bra cups and front panels, often have a special fabric covering of their own, so there are delicate patchworks to be sewn together. This is a fantasy garment of a lady's own choosing, with suggestions from the Callisto Couture portfolio on display.
Joyce's little factory is outfitted with an industrial sewing machine that goes at lightning speed (she let me drive it and I almost landed up in the next office), an industrial steam iron and big hoops of steel and plastic to embrace the body and mould it. Then she adds strong but esthetically pleasing laces to finish the outfit. You can substitute ribbon ties for fun, but if you want a dramatic change to your waist, heavy-duty laces are the way to go.
These corsets are so pretty they don't need to be hidden unless they're supporting another garment, like a ball gown or wedding dress. Miss La Muse says she wears her custom blue corset over and under outfits, or alone as part of a costume onstage. The cinching gives her an hourglass look from the front, and a derrière that's a perfect upside-down heart.
Joyce often rescues desperate brides who bought their expensive gowns months before the wedding "and now there's two weeks to go and the dress won't fit." And then there are grads who just wants a sparkly corset top, to wear with a glamorous skirt.
At the opposite end of the age spectrum, she hears from annoyed grandmothers whose doctors have ordered a corset for back support. They look at these ugly things and say, "Ugh! I am still a woman, for heaven's sake."
Corset design seems like a strange second career for a scientist who used to work for Fisheries and Oceans Canada. But Joyce got restless in her early 30s -- one grows bored of zooplankton. So, six years ago, she made a radical change.
She always sewed, but didn't know which direction to go with it. "This may sound funny, but I put it out to the universe and the answer came back 'corsets,' and here I am."
Joyce believes she is well-suited to the work. "I am particular, and patient." Plus, she loves nature, and most of her fabrics are from natural substances such as silk, cotton and linen with colours from natural dyes such as tree bark. "When you iron that fabric, you get a fragrant woodsy smell."
A well-cared-for Callisto Couture corset, Joyce says, could last a lifetime. "It's something you can pass on to your daughters and granddaughters."
Think of it as a piece of fabric art -- and a hint at grandma's secret life.
"I have a 24-inch waist, but when it's laced up all the way in a corset, it's only 20 inches," says our corset model, Winnipeg burlesque entertainer Miss Angela La Muse. She owns a midnight-blue number with black trim and Swarovski crystals made by the Exchange District entrepreneur.
"The most difference I've seen in a corseted waist was nine inches smaller, and that was a man. But it was a man who was used to wearing corsets," says 39-year-old Joyce, who creates the fantasy garments start to finish.
Here's how it works: The steel or modern plastic "boning" cinches the entire core of the body and quite tightly at the waist. Someone near and/or dear to you can pull the lacing in the back and tie it firmly, or you can lace it ahead of time and do up the front closure yourself. Hey, presto! Madame (or Monsieur) has a slimmed waistline. And one can still breathe, though gently.
You'll want to take a deep breath before reading this, though. Ms. Joyce charges $800 and up for these custom garments, which take up to 40 hours make. They also require exotic materials "from weaving countries around the world." She notes her customers are often "confident women in their 40s and 50s with disposable income."
In fact, her website, www.callistocouture.ca, includes praise from the likes of Winnipeg philanthropist Gail Asper. "Exactly one year to the day I opened my business, Gail was photographed on the red carpet in Ottawa in one of my corsets. I took it as a sign I was at the right place in my career."
Any difficulty getting customers in Winnipeg at those prices? "No, I haven't noticed any," smiles Joyce, who works in a romantic lilac-coloured factory at 506-63 Albert St.
"I make the shape out of stiff German Cotil which won't rip or give way and insert custom-sized steel or plastic boning, in the place of whalebone used in the old days," she says.
Different parts of the garment, such as bra cups and front panels, often have a special fabric covering of their own, so there are delicate patchworks to be sewn together. This is a fantasy garment of a lady's own choosing, with suggestions from the Callisto Couture portfolio on display.
Joyce's little factory is outfitted with an industrial sewing machine that goes at lightning speed (she let me drive it and I almost landed up in the next office), an industrial steam iron and big hoops of steel and plastic to embrace the body and mould it. Then she adds strong but esthetically pleasing laces to finish the outfit. You can substitute ribbon ties for fun, but if you want a dramatic change to your waist, heavy-duty laces are the way to go.
These corsets are so pretty they don't need to be hidden unless they're supporting another garment, like a ball gown or wedding dress. Miss La Muse says she wears her custom blue corset over and under outfits, or alone as part of a costume onstage. The cinching gives her an hourglass look from the front, and a derrière that's a perfect upside-down heart.
Joyce often rescues desperate brides who bought their expensive gowns months before the wedding "and now there's two weeks to go and the dress won't fit." And then there are grads who just wants a sparkly corset top, to wear with a glamorous skirt.
At the opposite end of the age spectrum, she hears from annoyed grandmothers whose doctors have ordered a corset for back support. They look at these ugly things and say, "Ugh! I am still a woman, for heaven's sake."
Corset design seems like a strange second career for a scientist who used to work for Fisheries and Oceans Canada. But Joyce got restless in her early 30s -- one grows bored of zooplankton. So, six years ago, she made a radical change.
She always sewed, but didn't know which direction to go with it. "This may sound funny, but I put it out to the universe and the answer came back 'corsets,' and here I am."
Joyce believes she is well-suited to the work. "I am particular, and patient." Plus, she loves nature, and most of her fabrics are from natural substances such as silk, cotton and linen with colours from natural dyes such as tree bark. "When you iron that fabric, you get a fragrant woodsy smell."
A well-cared-for Callisto Couture corset, Joyce says, could last a lifetime. "It's something you can pass on to your daughters and granddaughters."
Think of it as a piece of fabric art -- and a hint at grandma's secret life.
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