Brasília - At the beginning of yesterday night, the Ministers of Foreign Relations of the Mercosur member countries discovered a way to end the double taxation of the economic bloc's Common External Tariff (TEC). Paraguay, which opposed alterations in the prevailing order, ended up accepting the reasoning of the other Ministers about changes in the TEC.
According to the Brazilian Chancellor, Celso Amorim, the Ministers managed to convince Paraguay that it wouldn't lose revenues as a result of the change. "I have faith that everything was resolved through an adequate edition, maintaining a positive fight to speed up the resolution, recognizing at the same time the instruments that are in force. Everything that was in doubt was taken care of," the Minister said.
Paraguay was opposed, since the double collection of the TEC is the country's main source of tax revenues, through what it receives in customs posts. The double collection of the TEC is the following: Products that arrive in the Mercosur are supposed to pay the TEC mport tax only one time, when products are imported to the economic bloc, and they should be free to circulate freely in the economic bloc. But there are situations in which the TEC is charged more than once, when goods come to one country and are transferred to other Mercosur countries, passing through customs.
Minister Amorim didn't go into details about the changes in TEC rules, but he assured that the instruments will not cause revenue losses - which was Paraguay's main concern. "There must be a means to distribute the TEC without a loss of revenues for not collecting them," he said.
The Ministers are continuing their conversations today to improve the instruments to end the double taxation by the end of 2008."The schedule of 2008 is still valid, but it represents a period for us to take care of all the preconditions, in order to provide security to all countries, not just Paraguay, but to any country worried about an instrument to distribute TEC revenues," the Minister declared.
Agência Brasil
Reporter: Gabriela Guerreiro
Translator: David Silberstein
12/17/2004
