Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said that the negotiation process for a trade agreement between Brazil and the United States has already begun, reports “Agência Brasil”. Guedes received the Secretary of Commerce of that country, Wilbur Ross, on the afternoon of this Wednesday (31) and said that it was clear that the negotiations are officially open.
“It was tied up that what was just a thought is now the following: we are already officially starting negotiations with the United States. When we finished [the meeting], Marcos [Troyjo, Secretary of Foreign Trade and International Relations of the Ministry of Economy] asked if we were already officially in negotiations. He [said]: 'Of course. We want that'.”
Guedes said that other countries began to see Brazil’s willingness to gradually open its market and expressed a desire to start a series of talks. “When Brazil announced that it wanted to increase its level of integration, Brazil stepped in. Then the Americans came to talk.”
The minister said that the agreement will involve agreements between both parties to meet the interests of both countries. “We want to send auto parts and they have to send wheat. So they say 'let my wheat in' and we say 'let my auto parts in'. But the scale is much larger”, explained the minister, in a simplified way, about how the commercial understandings between the two countries will take place.
The government avoids talking about deadlines for concluding the negotiations, but talks about closing an “ambitious” agreement with the world’s largest economy. According to Troyjo, Brazil needs to take advantage of the current “favorable situation” to move forward in negotiations with the US. This situation, according to him, is compounded, among other factors, by the convergent political alignment between the presidents of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro; of the United States, Donald Trump; and of Argentina, Mauricio Macri.
Macri's willingness is important, as is that of the other Mercosur presidents, because all trade agreements that involve changes in tariffs must go through the bloc. This is because Brazil already participates in a customs union, which is Mercosur.
Agreements that do not involve tariffs, such as those on intellectual property, telecommunications and regulatory convergence, can be conducted between the two countries without the participation of Mercosur. “In our conversation with Secretary Ross, we agreed to engage in both possibilities,” Troyjo said.
