EU Offers 60% Tariff Cut and Asks Brazil and Friends to Reciprocate
Written by Newsroom
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
The EU (European Union) has offered to cut its farm tariffs by 60% to kick-start trade talks in Geneva. EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson urged Brazil, India and China to reciprocate by slashing their industrial tariffs. The EU previously offered to cut farm tariffs by 54%.
The US trade chief also vowed to help make the talks succeed if emerging nations made a contribution. But developing countries warned that rich nations were expecting too much from their poorer counterparts.
Indonesia's trade minister, Mari Pangestu, said rich nations' hopes for an increased share of global trade should take a back seat to the development goals of the current trade round.
Brazil's foreign minister Celso Amorim said emerging economies, such as China, India and Brazil, were already offering substantial concessions and that developed countries should not expect too much.
Ministers from 35 nations are trying to reach a deal in talks at the Geneva-based World Trade Organization in the framework of the Doha round.
The Doha round of trade talks began in 2001. Discussions have so far foundered over the extent of cuts to farm subsidies and how far trade in services such as banking should be liberalized
The EU (European Union) has offered to cut its farm tariffs by 60%....
Brazil's foreign minister Celso Amorim said emerging economies, such as China, India and Brazil, were already offering substantial concessions and that developed countries should not expect too much.
Why don't they detail the "substantial concessions" that Brazil and others are offering??
I'm sorry, but Brazil and others are always crying about subsidies when they themselves subsidize their own farmers with low interest loans and tax breaks. How does one expect one to compete that pays their employers "livable" wages when the other pays theirs a wage of miseria?
Brazil always wants everything in their favor. They have no interest in a "level playing field" or things being "fair".
Yesterday while at the mall here in Aracaju I was looking at the prices for numerous items, even in the fast-food restaurants, and with the exception of New York, LA, and other U.S. megalopolis', brazil is more expensive than the U.S. and it's all because of the exorbinant taxes that are levied against EVERYTHING!
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Unique alternative written by Jorge Gonzalez,
July 22, 2008
It seems as if the EU is looking to gain Brazil's trust by lowering tarrifs and getting more contracts from some of their big named companies. EU partners can benefit greatly from something like this. Hopefully the EU can follow through on their tarriffs and not raise prices once more brazilian contracts are taken out of the EU.
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So right Bo ! written by ch.c.,
July 22, 2008
Better yet : recently.... India and Thaiand CANCELLED bilions, billions and billions of US$ for farmers debts !!!!!!
And in many developing countries, for ALL their citizens, they subsidize their own STAPLE foods production....on top of FUEL SUBSIDIZES such as China, India, Egypt, Indonesia. just to name a few.
In Egypt, the world largest wheat importer, not only do they benefit from the subsidized wheat produced in developed nations, but ON TOP.......RE-SUBSIDIZE THE IMPORTED WHEAT....A SECOND TIME !!!!
AND GUESS WHAT : WE, THE DEVELOPED NATIONS ARE WRONG TO SUBSIDIZE AGRICULTURE.
Lets face it, developing nations are rioting at times of high foods prices. Does a elimination or reduction in subsidizes will make it more.....CHEAPER ?????
hMMMMM....ONLY THOSE WITH A BIG HOLE IN THEIR BRAINS....AGREE !!!!!
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Ch.c written by João da Silva,
July 23, 2008
In Egypt, the world largest wheat importer, not only do they benefit from the subsidized wheat produced in developed nations, but ON TOP.......RE-SUBSIDIZE THE IMPORTED WHEAT....A SECOND TIME !!!!
I did not know this fact about Egypt and thanks for the interesting info.
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The EU (European Union) has offered to cut its farm tariffs by 60% to kick-start trade talks in Geneva. EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson urged Brazil, India and China to reciprocate by slashing their industrial tariffs. The EU previously offered to cut farm tariffs by 54%.
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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.
Why don't they detail the "substantial concessions" that Brazil and others are offering??
I'm sorry, but Brazil and others are always crying about subsidies when they themselves subsidize their own farmers with low interest loans and tax breaks. How does one expect one to compete that pays their employers "livable" wages when the other pays theirs a wage of miseria?
Brazil always wants everything in their favor. They have no interest in a "level playing field" or things being "fair".
Yesterday while at the mall here in Aracaju I was looking at the prices for numerous items, even in the fast-food restaurants, and with the exception of New York, LA, and other U.S. megalopolis', brazil is more expensive than the U.S. and it's all because of the exorbinant taxes that are levied against EVERYTHING!