Brasília, November 12, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - On Tuesday (11), Brazilian agrobusiness representatives consolidated the sector's proposals for negotiations over the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Among them, issues involving access to markets, the end of subsidies for agricultural exports, especially by the United States, and measures of domestic support to strengthen the sector. The demands were presented to the Ministry of Agriculture's Sectorial Chamber for International Business.
The suggestions will now be discussed at a meeting to be held on Thursday (13) between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the members of the Foreign Trade Chamber (Camex).
The access to markets item is divided into a program for the elimination of tariffs, acceleration of tariff elimination, bands or ranges of prices, non-tariff measures, negotiations concerning the World Trade Organization (WTO), and safeguards for agricultural products.
The second item, which deals with export subsidies, is divided into the elimination of export subsidies for agricultural products in the context of the FTAA and the multilateral elimination of export subsidies for agricultural products. The third item suggests measures of domestic supports, such as tariff differentiation according to the products being exported
For the president of the National Commission on Foreign Trade of the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture (CNA), Gilman Rodrigues, the document merely reinforces the positions of Brazilian agrobusiness entrepreneurs. In his opinion, the most important thing at this moment is the willingness of countries to return to negotiations, so that they move ahead.
Rodrigues informed that the farmers suggested safeguards to compensate for the effects of subsidized agricultural products in the economies of other parties to the negotiations. "We want to resolve this, since the subsidies end up being exported. The subsidy of exports produces distortions in the international market. For this reason, negotiation is important, since the FTAA provides a valuable opportunity for the expansion of agrobusiness, especially Brazilian agrobusiness, since we have quality and prices. We are competitive," Rodrigues pointed out. (DAS)
