US-Brazil Trade Facilitation Agreement Sealed

Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, told a business audience that his country and the U.S. have completed a trade facilitation agreement, an agreement on best regulatory practices, and an anti-corruption agreement. He said these treaties would “slash red tape and bring about even more growth to our bilateral trade with beneficial effects to the flow of investments as well.”

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Myron Brilliant, who was hosting the Oct. 19 event, replied, “We look forward to the signing later today. We want to continue to see more progress,” he added, on digital trade, de minimis and trade facilitation. In a statement released after the business summit, Brilliant said, “There is still much more to do on key priorities -- the fact that digital trade and express shipment provisions did not make the cut is a missed opportunity. We ask both governments to return to the negotiating table as soon as possible to leverage the positive momentum of today’s announcement.”

The White House announced that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer was traveling to Brazil on Oct. 18. The signing had not happened by press time.

Foreign Affairs Minister Ernesto Araujo, also speaking on the webinar, said this trade package is more than Brazil and the U.S. has been able to achieve “in a very long time,” and said there would also be some specific solutions on steel and on ethanol-sugar. The U.S. has tightened quotas on Brazilian steel (see 2008310010) even as these trade talks were underway.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, also on the webinar, said that he hopes the progress will lead to a “huge expansion in trade” in the Western Hemisphere. He said China is a big participant in both the American economy and Brazil's. “Each of our two economies benefits from much of that trade but there is enormous risk attached to it as well,” he said, and said that if Brazil and the U.S. increase trade between their two countries, it can “decrease each of our two nations’ dependence for critical items coming from China.”