Scope. Qualification. Administration and port operation. Jurisdiction and control. Application authority. Regulations. Final considerations.

Passed: June 3, 1992

Partially in force as from: June 24, 1992

The Senate and Representatives of the Argentina Nation, in Congress meeting, etc. hereby pass the following law:

TITLE I
SCOPE

ARTICLE 1- Every aspect concerning the qualification, administration and operation of the existing State-owned and individually-owned ports or to be created in this Republic, are covered by this law.

ARTICLE 2 - The name port is given to the artificial or natural aquatic or terrestrial environments and all the fixed facilities for the anchoring, mooring and moving off and demurrage of ships and naval vessels to make any load transfer operations betwen land and sea or passenger embarking or disembarking and any other services that might be rendered to the ships or naval vessels, passengers or cargo. The fixed or floating platforms for ship lightening or cargo completion are also covered under this law.

ARTICLE 3 - The ports or nearby areas exclusively devoted to the military or to the state police use, are not covered under this law.

TITLE II
ABOUT THE QUALIFICATION

CHAPTER I
EXISTING HARBORS OR HARBORS-TO-BE

ARTICLE 4 - All the commercial and industrial harbors involving international and interprovincial trade require a National Qualification.

ARTICLE 5 - The qualification of all harbors referred to in article 4 must be granted by the Executive Power, according to this law. Such a decision shall be communicated to the Congress within ten working days, as from the decree date.

ARTICLE 6 - To this end, the competent authority shall bear in mind the following rules:

1. Port location
2. Identification of harbor facilities
3. Listing of the natural or artificial persons, holders of the ports.
4. Classification of the ports, according to the real state ownership where they are located; according to their use and objectives; categories to be defined by the holder of the port.
5. Aspects related to the national defense and security.
6. Environmental impact, maximum levels of gas, solid and liquid effluents.
7. Use of the port for interprovincial and/or international trade.
8. Work health and safety regulations
9. Customs and migration controls
10. Navigation and harbor safety police force.

ARTICLE 7 - The ports shall be classified:

1- According to the land ownership :

• National
• Provincial
• Municipal
• Private

2- According to their use:

• Public use
• Private use
• Harbors of public use are those which, according to their location and operations must render services to any user who might so require.
• Ports of private use are those which are rendering services to vessels, ship owners, cargo companies and goods receivers, in a restricted way according to the needs of the owners or third parties contractually linked to them. Such activity shall be developed under the frame of the free competence, concerning prices and users admittance.

3- According to their objectives, independently from the ownership of the land and its use:

• Trade
• Industry
• Recreation
• Trading ports are those which objective is to give service to vessels and cargos, charging for those services.
• Industrial ports are those which are destined to operate with specific cargos of an industrial process, of extraction or capture. There should be an operative integration between the main industrial activity and the harbor.
• Recreational ports are those used for sports, science and local tourism.

ARTICLE 8 - The destination of the ports shall be modified with prior and express authorization of the Application Authority. Any modification of the facilities due to the technological advances in the industrial process, to  market demands and to raw materials or elaborated products being shipped or unloaded in such ports shall not be considered as a change of objective.

CHAPTER II
PORTS ALREADY FUNCTIONING

ARTICLE 9 - Private harbors and terminals that at the time of the enforcement of this law are functioning with a provisional authorization of the regulatory authority and according to the related rules, shall be definitively qualified by the National Executive Power, who shall communicate this decision to the National Congress, within ten (10) working days as from the date of the resultion.

CHAPTER III
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

ARTICLE 10 - All harbors qualification shall be maintained as long as their activity and the technical and operational maintenance continue according to the regulations of this law and of the corresponding qualification.

ARTICLE 11 - Upon requests of the provinces and/or the Buenos Aires City Municipality, in whose territories National State-owned and/or administrated ports are located, through the regulated proceedings, the Executive Power shall transfer, gratis, the port ownership and/or its administration.

In case the above indicated jursidictions have no interest in the transfer of port ownership or administration, the Executive Power may maintain those harbors under the National State ownership, transfer them to the private activity or sell them.

CHAPTER II
ABOUT THE STATE ADMINISTRATION AND OPERATION

ARTICLE 12 - In the special case of the harbors of Buenos Aires, Rosario, Bahía Blanca , Quequén and Santa Fe, the transfer foreseen in the previous article shall be done under the condition thaat they should be formed as corporations or non-state public entities which shall be in charge of the administration of each of those harbors. These entities shall be organized assuring the participation of those private sectors working in the port, meaning operators, service agencies, users, producers, workers and others linked to the activity. The provinces and the municipalities in which territory the port is located shall have participation in those entities, according to the by-laws of each port. The artificial persons administrating or working the above ports shall be entitled to determine the service fares, and the earnings shall be invested in the same harbor, according to the corresponding by-laws.

ARTICLE 13 - The national administration shall be able to operate and exploit the national harbors on its own, or else to grant the operation and exploitation to state-owned, mixed or private artificial persons, to sign contracts for the concession of total or partial lease, by public bids and according to the regulations set forth in this law.

ARTICLE 14 - The administration of the national ports shall be able to sign agreements with natural or artificial persons in order to repair, modify, enlarge or reduce the existing facilities or to build new ones, for the port rendering of services, through any alternative determined by the application authority, according to the outstanding rules.

ARTICLE 15 - In case of a public work bid for the construction or division of ports and facilities, docks, grain elevators, container terminals and any other main or supplementary facilities, the administration will be able to sign an antithesis agreement.

ARTICLE 16 - The terms of the above mentioned contracts, shall allow the rational depreciation of the investments agreed upon between the parties.

CHAPTER III
ABOUT THE ADMINISTRATION AND OPERATION OF PRIVATE PORTS

ARTICLE 17 - The private owners will be able to build, manage and operate public or private ports, with commercial, industrial or recreational purposes, on fiscal lands or on their own land.

ARTICLE 18 - The ships and cargos operating in the private ports shall be exempted to pay the Statal rights and fees for the harbor services the State does not render.

ARTICLE 19 - The regulation shall set the minimum essential services to be given to all vessels and cargos in the commercial public harbors, and the facilities that should be granted to the police and control authorities either in the public or private ports, and for any purpose whatsoever.

CHAPTER IV
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

ARTICLE 20 - The company responsible of each port, under any kind of ownership or classification, will be in charge of: the maintenance and improvement of works and essential services, such as depth and signalling of the accesses and water mirrors, safe mooring towing and piloting facilities. The responsibility shall be complied with according to the outstanding regulations issued, as a function of the police control the National State grants in these issues. The Naval Coast Guard shall be competent for issuing the pilot qualifying licenses.

TITLE IV
ABOUT JURISDICTION AND CONTROL

ARTICLE 21 - All the harbors included in this law shall be submitted to all the controls by the national competent authorities, according to the outstanding regulation, including work laws, collective bargain agreements, and water navigation and transportation, notwithstanding the corresponding local constitutional competences. The application authority shall coordinate such controls as a responsibility of the national government for not interfering with the harbor operations.

TITLE V
ABOUT THE APPLICATION AUTHORITY

ARTICLE 22 - The application authority of this law, shall be determined by the Executive Power through both the Economy and the Works and Utility Ministry, or the one replacing it in the future. And it shall have the following responsibilities, among others:

1. To advise the National Executive Power for the qualification of the ports according to articles 5° and 9° of this law;
2. To control the compliance of this law and associated national regulations within the harbor activities;
3. To control the holders of the port qualifactions granted, comply with the construction and operation projects and use the ports and port facilities the destination for which the qualification was granted. These qualifications might be suspended until the conditions are resumed or be definitively canceled upon objective and proven circumstances of the impossibility to comply with their reinstatement;
4. To promote and carry out the updating, efficiency and profitability of each of the National State harbors;
5. To stimulate and impulse private investment in the port explotation and administration;
6. To give technical and juridical advise to the provinces and/or municipalities to promote port facilities in their territories, upon request;
7. To propose to the National Executive Power harbor and navigable ways general policies;
8. To set agreements stating the responsibilities of the dredging of accesses and mooring sites of each harbor, and if necessary in areas where responsibility is of doubtful or conflictive determination;
9. To control, subsidiarily, the compliance of any law or regulation which application concerns a national authority, in the harbor area;
10. To coordinate the action of the existing national organisms for supervision and control in order to prevent the overlapping of functions, and to facilitate the efficient functionting of the port and of the services rendered; notwithstanding the outstanding related laws and regulations.;
11. To apply sanctions for the misdemeanors set forth in article 23 clause a) of this law;
12. To fix the investment paying-off terms for the regulations set forth in article 16 of this law, for the National State-owned ports;

ARTICLE 23 - The National Executive Power shall regulate this law within a period of one hundred and eighty days as from its enforcement:

Among others, this regulation shall bear:

1. The disciplinary regime under which the harbor administrators shall be submitted if any of the legal or regulatory dispositions are not complied with. These penalties could be: qualification suspension for a certain time, and qualification waiver. In both cases, these sanctions might be appealed before the competent courts of law and administrative organisms;
2. It is compulsory tohave records of all the accounting and operations, for an easily retrieval of the information needed by the application authority;
3. The conditions for requesting port qualifications or use concessions, exploitation and/or administration;
4. The list of the minimum and essential services and facilities that should be given to the police and control authorities in the harbors, according to article 19 of this law;
5. Outlines for work health and safety, environmental impact, sanitary controls.

TITLE VII
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

ARTICLE 24 - Laws 16.971, 16.972, 21.892, 22.080, decree 10.059/43 ratified by law 13.895 and every other regulation or ruling as opposed to this law, are hereby annulled. Annex I to law 23.696 is annulled in the following statement: "Harbor General Administration - Descentralization and Provincialization. Total or partial harbor and harbor facility concession."

ARTICLE 25 - Let the Executive Power be notified - ALBERTO PIERRI - EDUARDO MENEM - Esther H. Pereyra Araudia de Pérez Pardo - Edgardo Pluzzi.

PASSED IN THE SESSION ROOM OF THE ARGENTINE CONGRESS, IN BUENOS AIRES, THIS THIRD DAY OF JUNE NINE THOUSAND AND NINETY TWO.