To increase the competitiveness of Brazilian products abroad, the federal government decided to make the Export Financing Program (Proex) procedures more flexible, promoting greater adherence to the complexity of the negotiation and logistical processes involved in exports, especially those with higher added value.
Following a regulatory improvement made by CMN Resolution No. 5,103, which came into force at the beginning of this month, the approval of requests for support from Proex-Financiamento and Proex-Equalização began to be accepted after exports were completed.
To do this, the exporter needs to comply with certain requirements, such as registering the LPCO (which is a certificate, license, or permit) before export. In addition, it is necessary to have obtained approval from the LPCO in the same financial year as the export, have budget availability, and comply with other conditions applicable to Proex operations.
The new text also establishes that, in such situations, the exporter assumes any losses resulting from the rejection of Proex support requests.
According to the executive secretariat of the Chamber of Foreign Commerce (SE-Camex), which is under the supervision of the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce, and Services (MDIC), the change is expected to expand the base of exporters served by this modality of official support, thus boosting national exports and strengthening Brazil’s presence in the international market.
How was
According to previous regulations established by CMN Resolution No. 4,897, on March 25, 2021, LPCO approval needed to take place before the effective export of goods and services. Otherwise, external sales could not receive support from Proex-Equalização or Proex-Financiamento.
This meant that, in the event of a delay in approving the support request, exporters were forced to postpone shipments of goods, causing logistical costs and, possibly, violating contractual commitments established with importers or, alternatively, renouncing support from Proex.
It was noted that this caused insecurity for exporters since, even if they met the requirements for access to Proex, they could suffer financial losses due to delays in bureaucratic procedures.
Cornerstone
Proex is an essential pillar in supporting Brazilian exports. Its objective is to level international practical financing conditions. To this end, the program offers direct financing with budgetary resources (Proex-Financiamento) and equalization of interest rates from public or private financial institutions (Proex-Equalização).
In 2022, Proex-Equalização supported US$2.2 billion in Brazilian exports, emphasizing the capital goods segment, while Proex-Financiamento provided a total of US$140 million in the same period.
In recent years, both the values of supported exports and the number of companies benefiting from both program modalities have decreased.
To reverse this situation, the Executive Secretariat of the Chamber of Foreign Commerce (SE-Camex), in dialogue with the export and financial sectors, sought to map the regulatory deficiencies that could be causing the decrease.
One of the conclusions was precisely identifying a temporal mismatch between the negotiation and export logistics process and the approval of the LPCO module.
Source: MDIC
