Luciene Cruz         Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília – On Thursday, June 2, the Brazilian minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Fernando Pimentel, and the Argentine minister of Industry, Débora Giorgi, signed a document in which they promised to comply with World Trade Organization norms and see that all import licensing occurs within a period of 60 days.

The problem is that the document was considered little more than a sign of goodwill by both countries as it contains no practical guarantees that the 60-day period will actually be respected.

Even so, after their meeting, Pimentel and Giorgi both denied the existence of a trade war between Brazil and Argentina, saying there has been “No crisis, rupture or discontinuity…” (Pimentel) or “Rather than tension or war, we are working to strengthen our relationship…” (Giorgi).

Pimentel went on to say: “Both countries recognize the need to speed up the import liberation/licensing process. In Argentina, the goods involved are many, in Brazil, mainly automobiles. Each country will do what it can. We feel certain there will be an easing of tensions and goods that have been halted for some time at our borders will be liberated.”

Giorgi said that the problem could be outside the jurisdiction of her ministry, in other areas. “We will do what we can in our ministry. But there are other agencies involved, sanitary norms and technical regulations, for example.” And she added a veiled threat to the effect that whenever the trade balance shifted too far in Brazil’s favor there could be other suspensions of automatic licensing.

Trade problems between Brazil and Argentina boiled over around three weeks ago when Brazil retaliated against barriers to Brazilian exports by suspending the automatic licensing for automobiles from Argentina. The barrier in Argentina was an ever expanding list of goods from Brazil that no longer had automatic licensing (around 600 products, at the moment). What happens without automatic licensing is a waiting period that is supposed to be at the most 60 days. Brazil complains that Argentina has held up goods for more than 60 days.

Trade numbers tell the story of the Brazil-Argentina problem. Brazil’s exports have risen 30% this year, but exports to Argentina are up 32%. On the other hand, Brazil’s imports are up 28% this year, but imports from Argentina only 19%.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - Brasil e Argentina negam guerra comercial e se comprometem a cumprir prazo de dois meses para liberar importações