Brasília – The Foreign Trade Board (Camex) approved today (14th) the lifting of the tariff on cotton imports from countries outside of the Mercosur. The current tariff is 10%. The Brazilian minister of Agriculture, Wagner Rossi, claimed that the reduction will remain in effect from October this year until May 2011, the off-season period, for up to 250,000 tonnes of the product.
According to Rossi, there is a consensus regarding the measure among farmers, the textile industry and exporters. "We will provide the supplies that the textile industry needs in order to keep it competitive," he claimed. The consensus has been reached because the country’s cotton production has dropped, and considering that sales have taken place earlier in the current crop, there will be a deficit of the product in domestic market.
The Camex is comprised of representatives of the presidential staff and of the ministries of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, of Finance, of Planning, of Foreign Relations, of Agriculture and of Agrarian Development.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
