Footwear and leather could be among the industries to benefit from an increase in import tariffs that Brazil s new president, Dilma Rousseff, is considering, according to reports.
A manufacturing industries federation leader in S o Paulo, Paulo Skaf, told reporters after a recent meeting with development, industry and external trade minister, Fernando Pimentel, that the government agreed that investment and effort are required for Brazil to protect its commercial interests.
Mr Skaf said the minister had suggested that President Rouseff would like to put import tariffs up for certain key products and that footwear and leather were on the list. According to Paulo Skaf, action is necessary. He told reporters that Brazil had achieved a trade deficit of $72 billion in manufactured goods in 2010 and that current trade policies would see the figure rise to $100 billion in 2011.
The way things are going, he said, we either put more effective measures in place to discourage imports of manufactured goods or our deficit will go up. Imports are growing.
CITATION http://www.chinaleather.org/eng/show.php?itemid=5878
