|
 Brazil's UNICA, the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association, congratulated the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision to maintain the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) at its current level, but also urged the American Congress to reduce the imported ethanol tariff that, according to the organization, increases the cost of gasoline for American drivers.
"Today's EPA decision was sound. It is the high price of gasoline - not the Renewable Fuel Standard - that is driving ethanol demand. Reducing the blending mandate would have no impact on ethanol demand in the short term and could jeopardize future production of advanced renewable fuels," says Joel Velasco, UNICA's Chief Representative in Washington.
"The next step - and one that Congress has yet to take - is to reduce the distortive tariff on imported ethanol. This one-of-a-kind tax on a clean energy alternative serves only to punish American drivers by artificially inflating the price of gasoline at the pump," he added.
The US Ethanol Import Tariff of 1980 imposed a US$ 54-cent per gallon tariff on imported ethanol. Designed as a temporary measure, the tariff was meant to increase the amount of ethanol produced in the US. In 2007, domestic production had increased to more than 6 billion gallons.
The 2008 US Farm Bill reduced subsidies to the ethanol industry from US$ 51-cents per gallon to US$ 45-cents per gallon. However, the tariff on imported ethanol remains unchanged at US$ 54-cents per gallon. Lowering the subsidy without lowering the tariff keeps sugarcane ethanol, a less expensive fuel alternative, out of reach for many US drivers.
UNICA notes that the price distortion caused by the U.S. tax on less expensive imported ethanol is outlined in a recent report by the Farm Foundation, which notes:
"The U.S. tariff on imported ethanol introduces a potentially greater distortion than does the subsidy or mandate. Since high oil prices directly lead to higher corn prices, corn ethanol becomes much more expensive. Sugarcane-based ethanol is less expensive to produce than corn ethanol at any oil price, but the gap widens at higher oil prices.
"So removal of the tariff on imported ethanol would lead to the biofuel coming from the lowest cost source - sugarcane - which would reduce some pressure on corn prices and provide the United States with lower cost ethanol. Brazil has the potential to expand ethanol production substantially without increasing world sugar prices substantially, so imports down the road could be quite high."
UNICA represents the top producers of sugar and ethanol in Brazil's South-Central region, especially the state of São Paulo, in the Southeast, which accounts for about 50% of the country's sugarcane harvest and 60% of total ethanol production.
UNICA develops position papers, statistics and specific research in support of Brazil's sugar, ethanol and bioelectricity sectors. In 2007, Brazil produced an estimated 487 million metric tons of sugarcane, which yielded 30.6 million tons of sugar and 22 billion liters of ethanol.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
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.
The same could be said for......China textiles, cars and tractors from China and elsewhere, toys, etc etc !!!!
If you like paying higher prices than others in some imported goods due to the import taxes, why other countries have not the same rights as YOUUUUUUUUUUU ???????