EN 
PT_BR Vice President Geraldo Alckmin said on Saturday (23) that Brazil will overcome the trade crisis caused by the tariffs imposed by the United States government and recalled the reduced dependence on the North American market, compared to past decades.
"It will pass. In the 1980s, our exports to the US were 24%, practically a quarter of Brazilian exports. Today, they are 12%. And what is affected is 3.3%. That's what is affected by the tariff hike," observed the vice president, who is also Minister of Development, Industry, Commerce, and Services, during a debate on the political situation hosted by the Workers' Party (PT) in Brasília.
Alckmin recalled that, at the moment, approximately 36% of exports to the US are the most affected by the 50% tariff, and that they have a more worrying impact on some sectors of the manufacturing industry, such as machinery and equipment and the textile industry.
"The machinery, equipment, footwear, and textile industries. These are the ones that suffer the most. Because food, [like] meat, if I don't sell it there, I'll have other markets. The world won't collapse. Coffee, if I don't sell it there, I'll sell it elsewhere. Now, manufactured goods are harder to reallocate. They end up reallocating, but it takes a little longer," pointed out the vice president, who has been acting as Brazil's main negotiator on this issue. "We won't give up on lowering this rate and removing more products," the vice president insisted, noting that not all products exported by Brazil were overtaxed. Approximately 42% of them were excluded from the 50% rate, while another 16% were included in taxes that affect other countries to the same extent, such as steel, aluminum, and copper.
As an alternative, Alckmin highlighted, the country should expand markets, with the signing of the Mercosur-European Union agreement, which could occur by the end of the year, in addition to other negotiations, such as the Mercosur agreement with EFTA (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland), Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
Alckmin also highlighted the measures announced by the federal government to reduce the negative impacts caused to Brazilian exporters by the tariff hike, such as the opening of a credit line, the suspension of taxes on imported inputs (drawback), and an increase in the percentage of federal tax refunds to affected companies.
On the international front, the vice president cited the Brazilian government's complaint filed with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against US tariffs and predicted that the case could also reach US courts. "You can't use regulatory policy for partisan, political reasons," he commented.
