Brazil Debates Tariff Policy with Europe and the US
Written by Lourenço Melo
Tuesday, 01 November 2005
On Friday, October 28, Brazil participated in a teleconference with the government of the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) to debate global tariff policy, particularly for agricultural imports.
The Brazilian minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, said in a press conference that the US proposes a 65% average reduction in current tariff levels, while the EU favors an average cut of 39%.
"We eagerly await the European Union to present its contribution on market access by the end of the week, with proposals for an effective market opening for fresh and processed agricultural products from developing countries," he added.
Brazil's negotiations are aimed at concluding arrangements to present in Hong Kong at the meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December.
During the press conference, Amorim read a message sent by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on October 25 to the leaders of four European countries (France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal) and the head of the European Commission, Durão Barroso, asking them to back significant reductions in tariffs and non-tariff barriers.
In the message, Lula emphasizes the need for the understandings to reach a satisfactory conclusion, since the negotiations are at a "critical juncture." And he expresses concern over "the prospect of a possible stall in the negotiations on agriculture at the meeting in Hong Kong."
The EU is the world's largest importer of agricultural products, and "its position in the negotiations will set a standard for the contributions that other countries will be willing to make on this matter," the message goes on to say.
The President emphasizes, moreover, that the position taken by the EU will encourage other partners, "especially the United States, to make additional moves that we consider indispensable as far as domestic subsidies are concerned." Agência Brasil
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Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
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Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
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