Doing Business in Bolivia

Bolivia is one of the poorest country in South America. The leading sectors for American exporters and investors remain the textiles, hydrocarbons, forestry and wood products, and mining.

In the case of hydrocarbons, the best sales prospects include liquefied natural gas (LNG), gas-to-liquids (GTL) where the demand is up to 100.000 bpd plants for export, petrochemicals, and fertilizers. Gas-related machinery, production techniques, and equipments are also in demand.

The main metals and minerals include gold, zinc, tin, sulfur, lithium, semi-precious stones, silver, lead, copper, potassium, and borax. Almost forty percent of Bolivia`s exports come from the mining industry. Mining equipment required for open pit operations is in demand, and includes drills, pulverizers, compressors, bulldozers, gravimetric or flotation concentrators, crushers, conveyors, front-loaders, small jack-leg drills, pumps, flotation concentrators, explosives, and hand tools.

The textile sector is still developing in Bolivia. However, Bolivian products are already competitive in the international markets. Machineries for packaging, stamping, laundry, and transfer, synthetic fibers and threads, laboratory and packaging supplies, design software, and decorative accessories are in high demand.

Bolivian producers are looking to replace old equipment with new technologies for sawing and dying processes. U.S. equipment and machinery for sawing and dying is in demand.

For most goods, the import tariffs applied are up to ten percent. The tariffs for non-essential goods reach five percent, and the goods for industrial development are duty-free. On the other hand, luxury items such as tobacco products have an additional tax of fifty percent of it`s value. There are certain restrictions for the import of some types of old or worn apparel, clothing, shoes, and damaged textiles.

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