Skinny US-Brazil Deal Making Progress, Stakeholders Say
The U.S. and Brazil cannot achieve a traditional free trade agreement, because Brazil is a party to Mercosur, a regional customs union -- even if the long-term participation in Mercosur is in question. But Renata Vasconcellos, senior policy director Brazil-U.S. Business Council, said her group “fully supports" what she called a "non-traditional trade agreement." Vasconcellos was one of many panelists speaking at American University Nov. 5 at an International Trade Symposium focused on Brazilian issues. "I’m concerned about the closing of this window. Let’s take what we can get now," she said.
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Panelist Ralph Ives, executive VP for Global Strategy and Analysis at AdvaMed, said the fact that tariff reductions are off the table is fine. "The biggest gains do not come from tariffs but come from addressing trade facilitation, good regulatory practices, technical barriers to trade and anti-corruption," he said.
Vasconcellos said the talks aren't in the media, but the negotiators are working very hard. Ney Canani, first secretary at the Brazilian Embassy, said observers don't realize how much the talks are moving because they are at staff levels now. "Things are going fast. We have almost weekly talks," he said. "We will see things happen very, very soon."
Ives said that AdvaMed wants the two sides to advance on these fronts, and not to focus on trade irritants between the two countries, which, as panelists noted, are both agricultural powerhouses, with all the political complications agriculture brings to trade. "To my former USTR colleagues, we know there are trade differences between the U.S. and Brazil -- sugar, ethanol, cars or whatever. Don’t make them a precondition."
Gabrielle Trebat, a regional director for McLarty Associates, said that there won't be significant actions toward even a skinny agreement until the trade irritants of ethanol, beef and wheat are resolved.