Information about international affairs that can impact the Brazilian economy.
Costa Rica, Uruguay and Brazil, lead the Latin American sustainability ranking prepared by América Economía Intelligence considering seven dimensions: greenhouse gas emissions, energy matrix, biodiversity and forest management, agricultural pollution, water resources management, air quality in urban areas and environmental taxes. Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay are at the end of the list of eleven countries studied.
Brazil presented on Sunday to the financial G20 meeting in Riyadh its ‘Programa Verde Amarelo’ (Yellow Green Program) with which the Jair Bolsonaro government seeks to generate 1.8 million jobs in three years for young people aged 18 to 24. This represents a 2% increase in the employed population and a projected reduction of more than 30% in labour costs for companies, said the Secretary of International Economic Affairs, Erivaldo Gomes, replacing the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, who did not attend the meeting in Saudi Arabia.
The U.S. has reopened its doors to fresh beef from Brazil after a more than two-year ban, in a significant win for President Jair Bolsonaro ahead of a scheduled meeting with Donald Trump in March. Brazil can now begin shipping raw meat from cattle slaughtered from Feb. 21, according to a letter sent by the Food Safety and Inspection Service to the Brazilian minister. The U.S. suspended imports in 2017 after finding meat containing blood clots and lymph nodes. In 2016, sales of fresh Brazilian beef to the United States totalled $284 million.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Twitter on Friday that he will be discussing the potential opening of a Tesla plant in Brazil during his trip to the United States in March, among other issues. On Thursday, Eduardo Bolsonaro, President’s son and lawmaker said he participated in a video conference with the Minister of Science and Technology, Marcos Pontes, and the minister-adviser of the US embassy, William Popp, to discuss the attraction of Tesla’s investment.
Amaggi, the Brazilian soybean group owned by entrepreneur-turned-politician Blairo Maggi, is in advanced talks to buy the local unit of Argentina’s El Tejar (O Telhar) to capitalise on increasing crop demand from China. The proposed acquisition, yet to be confirmed by both companies, would encompass all assets in Brazil, including about 70,000 hectares (173,000 acres) of farming land, cotton mills, warehouses and machinery.
The majority of councillors at Brazil’s antitrust agency Cade voted on Wednesday against a prosecutors’ request to review the sale of Embraer SA’s EMBR3.SA commercial division to Boeing Co BA.N and allowed the deal to proceed. Earlier this month, Brazilian prosecutors had filed an appeal with Cade asking the regulator to reconsider its approval of the deal due to potential omissions in the decision. It tie-up had been approved without restrictions on Jan. 27.
Brazil will have around 20 million 5G users by 2023, accounting for 6% of the mobile base, according to Cisco’s Annual Internet Report 2018-2023. In the same period, the 4G customer base will grow to 58.4% from 53.8% of mobile accesses. By contrast, 3G and older technology will drop to 29.6% from 46.1% while IoT accesses will grow to 6% from 0.1 percent.
The Brazilian telecoms regulator (Anatel) preparing to auction bandwidth for fifth-generation (5G) mobile data at the end of this year said any decision on the security risks of using Chinese technology will ultimately be taken by the president’s national security adviser. Anatel approved the rules for the auction published by the government last week and opened a public review. If confirmed, it will be the world’s largest 5G spectrum auction to date.
Brazil meatpacker JBS (JBSS3.SA) said in a securities filing Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire five case ready production facilities from Empire Packing Company, as well as the Ledbetter brand for $238 million. The facilities are located in the United States and the transaction still requires regulatory approval.
“What we want from and with Argentina is Mercosur, a good relation, but having democracy and freedom above all”, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday. He expects foreign ministers of both countries agree on a new date for a meeting with his peer Alberto Fernández after the suggested summit in Montevideo on March 1 fell through due to the Argentina Congress opening sessions on the same day.
