São Paulo – The Doha Round, a negotiation on trade liberalization between developed and developing countries held under the World Tourism Organization (WTO), has failed to produce an agreement, so Brazil decided to promote its own round. The Brazilian minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, announced last Monday (30th) that Brazil is going to exempt the world’s 30 poorest countries from import tariffs.
The decision was announced by Amorim at the WTO meeting in Genebra. According to the foreign minister, the measure is going to encompass 80% of the products sold by those countries to the Brazilian market up until mid-next year. The rate should increase gradually and, within four years, all of the products traded should be covered.
Before the conference in Geneva, representatives of developing countries signalled with the possibility of signing a joint agreement for reducing trade tariffs amongst themselves. They had a new meeting, which was being called the São Paulo Round, scheduled to take place this Tuesday.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
