Chile Used Truck Import Rules 2026: The New-Only Rule, ZOFRI and Legal Routes

South America has quietly become the most rule-split region on our import map: Peru admits used trucks inside a tight model-year window, Bolivia reconditions in free zones, and Chile sits at the strict end of the scale. The Chilean rule surprises buyers because it is not an age limit at all - it is a condition-of-the-unit rule, and understanding it before quoting saves an entire procurement cycle of wasted paperwork.

Article 21: the ban is on use, not age

Article 21 of Ley 18.483, the Chilean automotive statute, allows only vehicles "sin uso" - without use - to be imported, and Chilean Customs lists used vehicles among prohibited imports. A 2019 tractor unit and a 2025 one get the same answer, because there is no five-year cap, no ten-year cap and no engine-size door. The ban also reaches categories other markets exempt: used motorcycles are prohibited outright, classic vehicles lost their carve-out in a 2014 Aduanas ruling, and there is no electric or hybrid age exemption. Buyers who have met Vietnam's import ban will recognise the logic - enforcement follows the declared condition of the unit, not its paperwork.

The narrow exceptions

Three doors exist. Special-use vehicles are exempt: ambulances, fire and rescue trucks, street sweepers, snow ploughs, workshop trucks, concrete mixers, motorhomes and vehicles for off-highway transport. Section 0 of the customs tariff and duty-exemption regimes admit some units under their own conditions. And the free-zone route below covers border regions only. Where a used unit is legally admitted, note the tax detail: authorised used goods carry an additional 50 percent duty surcharge under the customs complementarity rules (reported), and IVA of 19 percent applies on CIF plus duty, so the effective load lands above 26 percent of CIF before that surcharge.

What the Iquique free zone does - and does not

Residents of the Iquique (ZOFRI) and Punta Arenas free zones can import and trade used vehicles inside the zone. Moving one into the rest of the country is the part that does not work: a pasavante from Aduanas allows at most 90 days per calendar year, and permanent entry is limited to residents of the zone extension regions and a few franchise cases such as returning nationals. Iquique is often marketed as the region's used-vehicle hub - it is one, but mainly as a transit point onward, and treating it as a side door into mainland Chile is the fastest route to a storage bill at San Antonio.

Why new trucks changed the economics

Chile signs some of the lowest-duty trade agreements in Latin America. With a valid certificate of origin, trucks from FTA partners - China included, under the treaty in force since 2005 - enter at 0 percent duty; without one, the general rate is 6 percent. IVA of 19 percent applies either way on CIF plus duty. When a new unit clears at roughly a quarter of CIF in taxes while a used unit is prohibited, the second-hand discount that drives demand in African and Middle Eastern markets mostly evaporates. Our used truck price baseline and the 2026 import rules overview put that gap in context.

Where the demand actually is

Chile's buying power concentrates in mining: it is the world's largest copper producer with about 5.3 million tonnes of mine output in 2025 (USGS figure, via a freight-forwarder country review). Off-highway machines - which sit outside the vehicle ban - must arrive clean under SAG quarantine rules, with wash records and ISPM 15-marked packaging, and high-altitude sites such as Chuquicamata at 2,870 metres demand an engine derate conversation before purchase. Any machine should still pass the pre-purchase inspection checklist, with payment milestones and warranty clauses agreed before deposit.

For buyers whose corridors cross other strict regimes, our Algeria rules explainer and the Gulf three-market comparison cover the other red-light and high-verification routes, and the full country index lives in our rules collection.