A trade and economic cooperation deal between the U.S. and Brazil will open a constrained market and help reach the administration’s goal of doubling exports by 2015, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said.
Kirk, who will be co-chairman of a U.S.-Brazil commission to expand trade and remove non-tariff barriers, said he will meet at least once a year with counterparts from Brazil to “try to deal in a much more direct way with some of the challenges and barriers.” The U.S. has similar accords with other developing nations, Kirk said.
Brazil fell three positions to 127th in a World Bank survey this year that measures the ease of conducting business, trailing emerging economies such as Egypt, Russia, Argentina and Lebanon. Former Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva last year set limits on the amount of land foreigners can buy. The U.S. and Brazil also lack a bilateral tax treaty that avoids double taxation for companies.
“We can use this to really open the doors, and frankly, blow the doors open to what’s been a fairly constrained market for us,” Kirk said in an interview yesterday in the marbled entrance of the governor’s mansion in Rio de Janeiro. “This can be hugely accretive to what we’re trying to do with the export initiative.”
The accord signed on March 19 during President Barack Obama’s first visit to South America ended a push that began a year ago when Kirk said he met Celso Amorim, Brazil’s former foreign affairs minister. Business leaders including International Paper Co.’s John Faraci said the accord may one day lead to a free-trade agreement.
‘On the Agenda’
A Brazil free-trade agreement “should be on the agenda,” said Steven Bipes, executive director of the Brazil-U.S. Business Council, which is affiliated with the Washington-based U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobbying group. “Detailed specific proposals and ideas from the private sector, that work should begin,” he said.
During Obama’s visit, Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff reiterated complaints about barriers on U.S. agricultural exports, including farm subsidies and a 54 cents-a-gallon tariff on Brazilian ethanol that Congress renewed in December.
U.S. exports to Brazil surged to a record $35.4 billion last year as the Brazilian real’s two-year rally against the dollar made American goods more attractive.
The Obama administration is being pressed to send Congress free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama reached under Obama’s predecessor. Kirk said the White House wants to complete the South Korea pact before July 1, when a Korean accord with the European Union is set to take effect.
U.S. officials are negotiating with Colombia on labor protections and with Panama on tax-law changes before those deals are submitted, he said. Republicans led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky want the three agreements delivered to Congress at the same time.
“People forget it was only June of last year when the president said, ‘Let’s find a way to move forward with Korea’,” Kirk said. “We effectively got that done in less than six months.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Martin in Rio de Janeiro at emartin21@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net
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