* Brazil seeks to denounce U.S., European monetary policy
* Brazil trade minister confident China on board
* Brazil not seeking to raise tariff maximum at WTO
* Rousseff gov't wants protection against FX manipulation
(Adds details, quotes throughout)
By Brian Winter
NEW DELHI, March 28 (Reuters) - Brazil will push for its
large emerging-market peers including China to denounce what it
sees as unfair monetary policies by Europe and the United
States, raising the stakes in a global confrontation over
economic imbalances.
Brazilian Trade and Industry Minister Fernando Pimentel told
Reuters on Wednesday his country would seek such language in a
communique at this week's BRICS summit, which brings together
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Pimentel said that China had previously been cautious about
supporting language on global monetary imbalances "because they
thought we could be indirectly referring to them."
Many analysts believe that Beijing artificially manipulates
its currency but Pimentel said the biggest policy problems now
are in the rich world.
"Today's (problem) doesn't have to do with China," he said
in a 30-minute interview on the eve of the summit in New Delhi.
"It has to do with the dollar and the euro."
Pimentel also gave details of a new initiative to reduce
business costs for Brazilian exporters and importers, and
explained how his country will seek to address alleged global
economic imbalances before the World Trade Organization.
Brazil accuses rich countries of causing a "monetary
tsunami" by engaging in expansionist policies such as low
interest rates and bond-buying programs.
The policies are designed to stimulate the troubled U.S. and
European economies, but have also unleashed a wave of global
liquidity that has poured into emerging markets like Brazil,
driving up their currencies and making their economies less
competitive abroad.
Pimentel said that the five emerging markets that make up
the BRICS, a disparate group that often struggles to find common
ground on a wide array of issues, "have more or less the same
vision on this matter."
"I think there's going to be a mention of this (in the
communique), for sure," Pimentel said.
A united front among the BRICS is unlikely to persuade rich
nations to change their monetary policies. But it could give
Brazil and other countries critical political cover to seek
palliative action by raising their tariffs or pursuing change at
global bodies like the WTO. Brazil is spearheading a discussion
on currencies this week at the Geneva-based body.
Brazil, whose economy has slowed sharply over the past year,
has become one of the leading activist voices on what it sees as
unfair global trade imbalances. Its words and actions, amplified
by its status as Latin America's largest country and the world's
No. 6 economy overall, have raised fears of growing
protectionism among emerging markets.
Brazil has blamed the global liquidity glut for making its
currency one of the world's most overvalued. As local industries
struggle, its economy grew only 2.7 percent in 2011, below its
BRICS peers and down from a blistering 7.5 percent in 2010.
Critics say that Brazil, and its left-leaning President
Dilma Rousseff, are using rich countries as a scapegoat for
their own inefficient industries and other problems at home.
High taxes, labor costs and poor infrastructure have contributed
to making Brazil one of the world's most expensive and difficult
places to do business.
NEW PLANS TO HELP EXPORTERS
Pimentel, who is one of Rousseff's most trusted aides,
denied that Brazil is leading an "outbreak of protectionism" and
insisted that all its actions to date have been within the
parameters of the WTO.
He described Brazil's decision in February to renegotiate a
tariff-free auto trade deal with Mexico as unique, and said
there were no similar actions planned going forward.
Instead, Pimentel said Brazil is seeking changes at the WTO
that would allow for countries to protect themselves against
others that keep their currencies artificially weak, giving them
an unfair advantage in trade.
He said that the 35 percent maximum tariff allowed by the
WTO is based on an outdated framework for the global economy,
back when many currencies had fixed value, and that it no longer
allows for sufficient protection.
"Currencies have an effect on foreign trade," Pimentel said.
"When the (35 percent tariff) was thought up in the 1950s, it
was an absurd (high) number. Today, it's nothing. Today, a
poorly balanced exchange rate easily sterilizes that 35
percent."
While he said that Brazil will not seek an increase in the
maximum allowed tariff, other "mechanisms" are possible. One
solution, he said, would be to allow countries to apply a
"surcharge" or penalty to imports from countries that are found
to be keeping their currencies artificially weak, or whose
currencies depreciate a certain percentage over time.
"That's purely an example," he said. "There are other
possibilities."
In the meantime, Pimentel said Brazil will explore ways to
reduce costs for beleaguered local industries.
He revealed that Rousseff is exploring the creation of a
so-called "single-window" system that would reduce red tape for
exporters and importers.
Companies currently have to seek approval from as many as 17
different government bodies to get approval to send goods out of
Brazil, or bring them in, Pimentel said. The initiative seeks to
establish a single body that would oversee such transactions.
Pimentel said it could go into effect as early as the second
half of 2012 and that much of the transformation could be
accomplished via presidential decree, while some changes would
have to through Congress.
If it goes through, the measure would mark one of the most
significant efforts by Rousseff's government to reduce business
costs since it took office in January 2011.
"It'll make everything faster," Pimentel said. "We're going
to put everything in one place."
"So you see," he continued, "we're not creating barriers.
We're not with this spirit of trying to make things more
difficult. But, within the rules of the WTO, we're going to do
everything we can to defend our market."
(Editing by Todd Benson and Kieran Murray)
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