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\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" * 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}* Brazil seeks to denounce U.S., European monetary policy\n * Brazil trade minister confident China on board\n * Brazil not seeking to raise tariff maximum at WTO\n * Rousseff gov't wants protection against FX manipulation\n\n (Adds details, quotes throughout)\t\n By Brian Winter\t\n NEW DELHI, March 28 (Reuters) - Brazil will push for its\nlarge emerging-market peers including China to denounce what it\nsees as unfair monetary policies by Europe and the United\nStates, raising the stakes in a global confrontation over\neconomic imbalances.\t\n Brazilian Trade and Industry Minister Fernando Pimentel told\nReuters on Wednesday his country would seek such language in a\ncommunique at this week's BRICS summit, which brings together\nBrazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.\t\n Pimentel said that China had previously been cautious about\nsupporting language on global monetary imbalances \"because they\nthought we could be indirectly referring to them.\" \t\n Many analysts believe that Beijing artificially manipulates\nits currency but Pimentel said the biggest policy problems now\nare in the rich world.\t\n \"Today's (problem) doesn't have to do with China,\" he said\nin a 30-minute interview on the eve of the summit in New Delhi.\n\"It has to do with the dollar and the euro.\"\t\n Pimentel also gave details of a new initiative to reduce\nbusiness costs for Brazilian exporters and importers, and\nexplained how his country will seek to address alleged global\neconomic imbalances before the World Trade Organization.\t\n Brazil accuses rich countries of causing a \"monetary\ntsunami\" by engaging in expansionist policies such as low\ninterest rates and bond-buying programs. \t\n The policies are designed to stimulate the troubled U.S. and\nEuropean economies, but have also unleashed a wave of global\nliquidity that has poured into emerging markets like Brazil,\ndriving up their currencies and making their economies less\ncompetitive abroad.\t\n Pimentel said that the five emerging markets that make up\nthe BRICS, a disparate group that often struggles to find common\nground on a wide array of issues, \"have more or less the same\nvision on this matter.\"\t\n \"I think there's going to be a mention of this (in the\ncommunique), for sure,\" Pimentel said.\t\n A united front among the BRICS is unlikely to persuade rich\nnations to change their monetary policies. But it could give\nBrazil and other countries critical political cover to seek\npalliative action by raising their tariffs or pursuing change at\nglobal bodies like the WTO. Brazil is spearheading a discussion\non currencies this week at the Geneva-based body.\t\n \t\n Brazil, whose economy has slowed sharply over the past year,\nhas become one of the leading activist voices on what it sees as\nunfair global trade imbalances. Its words and actions, amplified\nby its status as Latin America's largest country and the world's\nNo. 6 economy overall, have raised fears of growing\nprotectionism among emerging markets.\t\n Brazil has blamed the global liquidity glut for making its\ncurrency one of the world's most overvalued. As local industries\nstruggle, its economy grew only 2.7 percent in 2011, below its\nBRICS peers and down from a blistering 7.5 percent in 2010.\t\n Critics say that Brazil, and its left-leaning President\nDilma Rousseff, are using rich countries as a scapegoat for\ntheir own inefficient industries and other problems at home.\nHigh taxes, labor costs and poor infrastructure have contributed\nto making Brazil one of the world's most expensive and difficult\nplaces to do business.\t\n \t\n NEW PLANS TO HELP EXPORTERS\t\n Pimentel, who is one of Rousseff's most trusted aides,\ndenied that Brazil is leading an \"outbreak of protectionism\" and\ninsisted that all its actions to date have been within the\nparameters of the WTO.\t\n He described Brazil's decision in February to renegotiate a\ntariff-free auto trade deal with Mexico as unique, and said\nthere were no similar actions planned going forward.\t\n Instead, Pimentel said Brazil is seeking changes at the WTO\nthat would allow for countries to protect themselves against\nothers that keep their currencies artificially weak, giving them\nan unfair advantage in trade.\t\n He said that the 35 percent maximum tariff allowed by the\nWTO is based on an outdated framework for the global economy,\nback when many currencies had fixed value, and that it no longer\nallows for sufficient protection.\t\n \"Currencies have an effect on foreign trade,\" Pimentel said.\n\"When the (35 percent tariff) was thought up in the 1950s, it\nwas an absurd (high) number. Today, it's nothing. Today, a\npoorly balanced exchange rate easily sterilizes that 35\npercent.\"\t\n While he said that Brazil will not seek an increase in the\nmaximum allowed tariff, other \"mechanisms\" are possible. One\nsolution, he said, would be to allow countries to apply a\n\"surcharge\" or penalty to imports from countries that are found\nto be keeping their currencies artificially weak, or whose\ncurrencies depreciate a certain percentage over time.\t\n \"That's purely an example,\" he said. \"There are other\npossibilities.\"\t\n In the meantime, Pimentel said Brazil will explore ways to\nreduce costs for beleaguered local industries.\t\n He revealed that Rousseff is exploring the creation of a\nso-called \"single-window\" system that would reduce red tape for\nexporters and importers. \t\n Companies currently have to seek approval from as many as 17\ndifferent government bodies to get approval to send goods out of\nBrazil, or bring them in, Pimentel said. The initiative seeks to\nestablish a single body that would oversee such transactions.\t\n Pimentel said it could go into effect as early as the second\nhalf of 2012 and that much of the transformation could be\naccomplished via presidential decree, while some changes would\nhave to through Congress.\t\n If it goes through, the measure would mark one of the most\nsignificant efforts by Rousseff's government to reduce business\ncosts since it took office in January 2011.\t\n \"It'll make everything faster,\" Pimentel said. \"We're going\nto put everything in one place.\"\t\n \"So you see,\" he continued, \"we're not creating barriers.\nWe're not with this spirit of trying to make things more\ndifficult. But, within the rules of the WTO, we're going to do\neverything we can to defend our market.\"\t\n\t\n (Editing by Todd Benson and Kieran Murray)<\/pre>\n