Subsidies Are Bound to Hurt US and EU, Says Brazil's Diplomat
Written by Spensy Pimentel
Thursday, 01 December 2005
According to Brazilian retired diplomat Rubens Ricúpero, the former secretary general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, Brazil should not be so concerned with free trade questions in the farm sector at this time, especially in negotiations at the World Trade Organization level. "Sooner or later these problems are going to be dealt with and progress will be made," he said.
Ricúpero went on to emphasis that besides world public opinion which is against the present system of subsidies, there is the fact that budgetary limitations will make it impossible for such spending to continue (for example, western European nations are spending about US$ 1 billion per day on farm subsidies).
According to Ricúpero, the rich nations dominate world trade and almost always come out on top in multilateral negotiations. So, he suggests more direct negotiations, country to country, or block to block.
"There is a natural tendency for trade to increase," says Ricúpero. He points out that this year, even without successful agreements at the WTO or the FTAA, Brazilian exports rose 35%.
"The idea that trade only increases as a result of negotiated agreements is not true. It can happen through the give and take of normal relations. You just have to be careful about giving too much," concluded Ricúpero.
US$ 1 billion PER DAY ? written by Guest,
December 02, 2005
IMPOSSIBLE !!!!
This is more than the total annual budget of the EU !
Brainwash with wrong numbers is too easy to disseminate to unknowledgable people !
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Yes, but... written by Guest,
December 02, 2005
Here's a little tidbit from the EU's official website:
"The European Union budget is drawn up on an annual basis and charts the Community's income and expenditure.
"The Community budget for 2004 amounts to around EUR 112 billion, 45% of which is allocated to the Common Agricultural Policy and 34% to regional policy. This sum represents less than 1% of the gross national income (GNI) of the European Union of 25 countries."
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I knew that.... written by Guest,
December 02, 2005
EU subsidises were around 50 to 60 billions Euros.
Now Brazilian should know that their agribusinesses and farmers get loans with an interest rate between 6 to 10 %. Knowing that individuals and corporations outside agriculture must borrow money at a rate of between 40 to 150 %, the difference is simply a subsidy. Not a small one by any definition. Of course, not a word on this subject from Brazil government. This year alone the BNDES budget lent 26 billions Reais to agribusinesses and farmers. A minimum differential rate of 40 % equals to 10 billions Reais or around US$ 5 billions or almost 1 % of GNI. But a loan is granted for several years and above BNDES loans are for this year only. Therefore we should add up all outstanding BNDES loans and loans by other governmental agencies. No dout this will equal to far more than 1 % of the GNI just for the differential in interest rates.
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HUM.... written by Guest,
September 18, 2007
I must say that long term money lending is not the same as subsidise. BNDES offers a great range of different programs - social, agricultural, industrial, etc. Its absurd the interest rates you just stated here, and if you go into BNDES' web site, youll see that interest rates are pretty much the same. You cannot as well forget that these loans are given for Brazilian development, and has helped a lot to decrease regional economic differences in a developing country (which is only not considered a least developed country for the Southeast and South regions), while EU and USA have a pretty stronger economy. Lets not forget that.
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.
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On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil.
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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. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
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. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
IMPOSSIBLE !!!!
This is more than the total annual budget of the EU !
Brainwash with wrong numbers is too easy to disseminate to unknowledgable people !