Peru vs Chile vs Ecuador for Used Trucks 2026: Duties, Bans and the FTA Math
Peru, Chile and Ecuador sit on the same coast under three different rulebooks: a two-model-year used window, a new-only statute and a three-way machinery split. This comparison puts duties, bans, free zones and the China FTA math side by side, so buyers can match the market to the fleet plan before quoting.
South America's Pacific coast looks like one market on a freight map and behaves like three different rulebooks on the ground. Our recent country guides covered Peru, Chile and Ecuador in depth; this comparison puts the three side by side, because the real purchase decision - which country to buy for, and whether the unit should be used at all - only becomes clear when the regimes are read together.
Three regimes, one paragraph each
Peru runs the region's narrowest used window: under Legislative Decree 843 and SUNAT practice, only diesel N3 tractor units and heavy trucks qualify as used, no more than two model years old and under 240,000 km, factory left-hand drive with no major accident, fire or flood history - and machines built exclusively for off-road use sit outside the decree entirely, with no age or mileage gate. The full regime, the tax stack and the FTA discount are in the Peru guide. Chile sits at the strict end: Article 21 of Ley 18.483 admits only unused on-road vehicles, with narrow special-use exceptions and a 50 percent surcharge route for the used units those exceptions admit (Chile guide). Ecuador splits the question three ways under COMEX Resolution 009-2022 and Resolution 51: on-road trucks must be new, used machinery runs to 15 years counted from manufacture, and special non-road vehicles are treated as machinery (Ecuador guide).
The FTA math that reframes the question
All three are China FTA partners, and that is the fact that quietly dominates the decision. Chile's agreement dates to 2005, so new Chinese trucks clear at 0 percent duty against a 6 percent general rate plus 19 percent IVA; Peru's has run since 2010 and can cut duty on many lines with a certificate of origin; Ecuador's took effect in May 2024 and is phasing vehicle lines from 5-40 percent toward zero. For on-road fleets in Chile and Ecuador the used-truck question is therefore really a new-truck question with an IVA line item, and Peru's two-model-year wall means the only eligible used stock is near-new 2024-2026 builds priced close to new. Buyers weighing regions against each other can reuse the structure of our Gulf three-market hub.
Where used procurement still wins
Three pockets remain. Near-new on-road tractors for Peru, provided the model-year and odometer evidence survives pre-purchase verification - there is no paperwork that clears an older unit, whatever a seller claims. Mine-site equipment, where the doors are widest: Peru's off-road carve-out has no age or mileage gate, Ecuador's machinery window runs 15 years from manufacture, and Chile's special-use exceptions admit off-highway units at the cost of the surcharge route. And financed or milestone-paid orders, where the structures in the payment guide keep cash protected while documents and inspection are completed.
A decision framework by fleet type
Match the market to the fleet, not the other way round. On-road used fleet procurement has exactly one legal destination on this coast - Peru, inside the two-model-year window; for Chile or Ecuador, plan new units under the FTA and budget the IVA from day one. Mine-site fleets should price all three doors: Peru's no-cap off-road lane, Ecuador's 15-year machinery window with the MIT pre-shipment licence, and Chile's exception route with its surcharge. Bolivia-bound customers should treat Iquique's ZOFRI as a transit hub, not a side door into Chile's national market. Paperwork tolerance matters as much as duty - Ecuador is the heaviest lift, and the whole lane is mapped in our China to Peru, Chile and Ecuador shipping guide.
Three traps worth naming
The five-year rule that circulates for Ecuador has no basis in the resolution text - treat it as noise, exactly as we did with Algeria's conflicting claims. Chile has no age-based door at all, so hunting for one wastes an entire procurement cycle. And a free-zone purchase does not legalise mainland use: Chile's pasavante regime caps circulation at 90 days a year. As the market list grows, re-anchor every quote against the master checklists in rules part one and part two, and price the unit itself against the used truck price baseline before comparing freight.