The Ministries of Economy and Foreign Affairs issued a joint note on Monday (19) to highlight the signing of the Protocol to the bilateral Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement between Brazil and the United States. The measure provides for regulatory initiatives to promote trade and investment flows between the two countries. For the Brazilian government, the trade package signed earlier by President Jair Bolsonaro will be the basis for building a future broader free trade agreement.
“The signing of the commercial package is part of a broader context of Brazilian foreign trade policy, whose main objective has been to create an economic environment favorable to business and Brazil’s competitive reintegration into the international economy. The package is intended to form the basis of a broad trade agreement to be negotiated in the future between the two largest economies on the American continent. The commitments assumed are aligned with historical demands from the private sectors of both countries “, says the note.
The Protocol text has three annexes, which deal, respectively, with trade facilitation and customs cooperation, good regulatory practices and anti-corruption measures. In the first item, initiatives are planned to reduce the bureaucracy of import and export procedures for goods and services between the two countries.
“There are important commitments for the use of technologies in the processing of exports and imports in order to reduce times and costs of operations. These are measures related to the use of electronic documents, electronic payments, interoperability between unique foreign trade windows and automation in the management of risks, including the use of ‘machine learning’ and artificial intelligence. There is also a section dedicated to the treatment to be given to agricultural products, of special interest to Brazil and the United States, major exporters in this sector “, says the joint note of the Ministry Foreign Affairs and the Economy.
The annex dealing with good regulatory practices addresses measures for governments to facilitate widespread competition in the markets, with transparency and predictability, and to limit state intervention in the economy.
The annex that deals with anti-corruption efforts, the Brazilian government cites the need for legislative binding to the obligations provided for in international treaties, such as the United Nations Convention against Corruption (2003), the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (1996) and the Convention the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (1997).
“The scope of the said annex, in line with recent initiatives by Brazil, expands, beyond the strictly criminal sphere, domestic action and international anti-corruption cooperation, also encompassing the civil and administrative spheres. This is a relevant evolution in the tasks to combat, through asset recovery, the central axis of organized criminal chains: their financial flows. The text therefore reinforces the joint commitment to fight corruption “, says another excerpt from the joint note.
Source: Agência Brasil
