Brazil Creates Group to Lobby US Congress and End Ethanol Protectionism
Written by Thaís Leitão
Tuesday, 06 June 2006
According to Brazil's ambassador in Washington, Roberto Abdenur, what Brazil and the US need to do is move forward on discussions regarding the use of ethanol.
Abdenur points out that the US now has barriers on imports of ethanol from Brazil, which must be removed. Then, says the ambassador, the two countries should work together to make ethanol a global energy product.
Abdenur says the measures would strengthen bilateral trade and reduce the impact of high petroleum prices.
Abdenur announced that an informal consultation Brazil-US group had been formed to lobby the US congress seeking to change its present protectionist position regarding Brazilian sugarcane-based ethanol.
At the moment, the US charges an importation surtax on ethanol of 2.5% per gallon, plus a US$ 0.54 tax (per gallon).
Abdenur says the US and Brazil produce 70% of the world's ethanol (the US product is mostly corn-based). He adds ethanol could alleviate fuel problems around the world.
"Ethanol needs to be seen less as a commodity and more as a solution to the planet's energy problems," declared the ambassador.
Protectionism ???????? written by Guest,
June 06, 2006
Just look at how your trade barriers and tariffs are...and then compare who does the most protectionism !
Just a few examples, what is your Government taxes on Oil, personal computers, cars ?
What a shame to ask for a end to protectionism when it is around US$ 0.13 per liter for the ethanol when you have a least triple or quadruple that amount on your oil....even the one produced in Brazil !
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Bilateral trade ?????? written by Guest,
June 06, 2006
Noooo....UNILATERALTrade. Your country has already an annual trade surplus of over US$ 10 billion with the USA alone, or around 25 % of your overall trade surplus.
What do you mean then by ....Bilateral Trade ??????????
You are really crooks and believe the Americans are stupid. They better continue charging even a higher tax on ethanol and spend it to develop their own production, just as you do on every single product you import !
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An Amerian written by Guest,
June 06, 2006
The USA has the North American Free Trade Act, which lowers trade barriers to imports from Mexico. But the USA has a high tariff which effectively keeps out Brazilian Ethonal. This is another example of how the USA government grants favorable treatment to Mexicowhile discriminating against Brazil and other countries. Since the USA lets imports in from Mexico, the USA should be fair and also allow imports of Brazilian products such as Ethonal and drop the tariff.
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.
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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.
Just a few examples, what is your Government taxes on Oil, personal computers, cars ?
What a shame to ask for a end to protectionism when it is around US$ 0.13 per liter for the ethanol when you have a least triple or quadruple that amount on your oil....even the one produced in Brazil !