Brazil may turn to WTO against China tariffs

Brazil’s Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said Tuesday (Aug. 28) that Brazil may resort to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to challenge the tariffs imposed by China on Brazilian goods. Maggi said the attempts made to negotiate directly with the Chinese government have proved fruitless.

“We’ve taken the usual approach to try to understand and negotiate, but sadly we haven’t been successful. So the idea is, we have to adopt a more confrontational stance in matters like these,” he noted after participating in an event at the São Paulo State Federation of Industries.

Figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply show that China accounted for ten percent of Brazilian sugar exports from 2011 to 2016, but the tariffs imposed by China brought the total down by 86 percent from 2016 to 2017.

Safeguard measures against sugar imports were introduced by China in May, 2017, in the form of 40 percent tariffs on import taxes, which led to a 90 percent quota on the total product value. Last year, sugar ranked ninth on the list of Brazilian goods exported to China.

As for chicken, China started taking provisional anti-dumping measures against Brazilian exports in June last year. The move added 18.8 to 38.4 percent on product values, depending on the company, including fresh chicken, whole or cut, refrigerated or frozen. Today, China receives ten percent of Brazilian chicken exports—a total of $800 million every year.