From the Newsroom*
São Paulo – Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade minister Luiz Fernando Furlan officially released two new foreign trade incentive programs at the offices of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp) yesterday. These incentives are the Trade Radar, which promises to simplify Brazilian businessman search for opportunities on the foreign market, and simplification of the drawback system, in which the government provides tax breaks for import of raw material, as long as it is used in the production of export products.
In the first case, the ministry is going to make information about the 41 countries responsible for 88% of international trade available on its web site (www.desenvolvimento.gov.br). This data will include information about the products and quantities each of these countries purchase.
"This will be of great impact for small and medium companies, as initial prospecting will be done by the ministry," stated Foreign Trade secretary, Ivan Ramalho.
Drawback
In the case of drawback, the main idea is to bring together in one decree the 11 norms related to the topic, as well as other bureaucratic modifications. The government will open the project to suggestions for the next 30 days, and the Fiesp International Relations Secretariat will be responsible for systematizing the suggestions.
According to information supplied by the ministry, 1,800 companies use drawback, and the equivalent to US$ 20 billion was exported through the system last year.
"Industrial policy is not by decree, but day by day, following an axis, such as that announced on March 31," stated Furlan, referring to the date in which the government detailed the new industrial policy measures, of which the two measures announced yesterday are part.
Trade balance
Still yesterday, the ministry announced the trade balance for the second week of April, which only included four working days due to the Good Friday holiday. The surplus registered was US$ 468 million, with export of US$ 1.455 billion and import of 987 million. The accumulated result for the year already totals export of US$ 21.478 billion and import of US$ 14.732 billion, generating a positive result for Brazil of US$ 6.746 billion.
According to information supplied by the ministry, the daily export average during the week was US$ 363.8 million, 26.5% greater than in the first week of the month, and 18.5% greater than in April 2003.
According to analysis by ministry technicians, this growth was caused by an increase in shipping of all product categories, basic, semi-manufactured, and manufactured. With regard to March, however, there was a 1.8% drop in export of basic products, but a 10.5% increase in semi-manufactured product shipping, and 1.3% increase in manufactured goods.
"Considering that the week was Holy Week, this performance was very good, which made us consider the possibility of a new record, also not a surprise," stated Furlan, according to an article by Paula Puliti published on the site of news agency Agência Estado. The minister believes that export should exceed US$ 80 billion this year, and the government target is to reach US$ 100 billion.
Import
Average import in the second week of April was US$ 242.3 million, 21.5% greater than in April 2003, and 4.7% over the average in March 2004. In comparison with April last year, there was an increase in purchases of fuel and lubricants, fertilizers, steelworks products, optical and precision instruments, electric and electronic equipment, plastics, and furniture.
With regard to March, there was an increase in fuel and lubricant import, steelworks products, optical and precision equipment, automobiles and auto parts, and electric and electronic equipment.
*With Agência Brasil
