Brazil Names Goods it Will Target in Cotton Retaliation

By Jim.Robinson|November 10, 2009

Wall Street Journal

Brazil’s government Monday published a list of 222 U.S. products that may be subject to tariff increases as a result of a World Trade Organization ruling earlier this year condemning U.S. subsidies to its cotton industry.

The government said the list would be made available for public consultation until Nov. 30 before it begins a final decision-making process on retaliations. According to the government announcement published in its federal register, items on the list could be subject to tariff increases of up to 100 percentage points.

In addition to cotton and other agricultural and textile products, the list includes other goods such as motor vehicle products, electronics, cosmetics, medical equipment and pharmaceutical products.

Speaking at the announcement of foreign trade results Monday, Brazil’s Foreign Trade Secretary Lytha Spindola said the list represented about 11% of Brazilian imports from the U.S.

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“If the subsidies aren’t removed, we will exercise our right to retaliation,” said Spindola.

The secretary said retaliation could begin as soon as January after recommendations are received from local industry on product selection.

The WTO in June ruled that Brazil could impose retaliatory measures against U.S. subsidies that Brazil alleged caused more than $3 billion in damages to its industry.

Brazil initially sought at least $2.5 billion in retaliatory rights, but according to the government’s latest estimates the ruling will allow for retaliation of around $900 million.

Of that penalty amount, about half could be applied against U.S. goods and the other half could be applied against U.S. services and intellectual property rights.

According to Spindola, the products on the list released Monday were selected according to their value and didn’t include capital goods or goods not available from suppliers outside the U.S. She said 64% of the products on the list were consumer goods and the remainder were industrial supplies.

(Story found in original format here.)

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Anonymous says:

September 26, 2011 at 3:18 pm

John Deere has a plant in Brazil that builds the billet sugar cane harvester. A friend I have at John Deere tells me it was required to build the harvesters in Brazil in order to trade with the country.
Deere also has a plant in South Louisiana that makes Billet cane harvester. A friend I have at Audubon Sugar that recently got back from Brazil tells me that Brazil now prefers to export its Brazilian made harvesters and import its harvesters for use in its country from Louisiana.

Seems odd to me that US production of cotton had maintained a constant level from 2000 through 2005. And has been decreasing production since. When we look at who has incresed production dramaticly Brazil, China, and India it makes me wonder where WTO and its leaders get thier information. Maybe we need to quit feeding the world trade organization and let someone else pay their bills. WTO is a socialist organization that we fund that fights us at every chance they get.

Brazil trade policy stinks.

all the countries, INCLUDING bRAZIL, that make up the WTO is jealous of our great country, USA. They have one goal and that is to ruin the USA.

USA always have pressured developing countries to open their markets in order to perform a beautiful “free” trade and, at the same time, ALWAYS subsidised and protect its market. Why?? In this case is simply: USA CANNOT COMPETE WITH BRAZIL IN TERMS OF AGRIBUSINESS (COSTS)!
That is just the beginning..

December 22, 2011 at 1:36 am