Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will sign, on the next days, two decrees to regulate safeguards against the importation of Chinese products.
One decree is for general products, as defined in the agreement for the acceptance of China in the World Trade Organization (WTO), and another, for textile products.
The announcement was made this Friday, May 20, by the Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Foreign Trade (Camex), Mário Mugnaini, during press conference at the Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade.
He said that the decision to adopt safeguards was taken during meeting with President Lula and Camex Ministers.
He explained, however, that safeguard adoption is not automatic, and that sectors that feel hurt by the increase of Chinese imports may request protection to the Department of Commercial Defense (Decom) of the Ministry of Development.
Decom will then have eight months for investigation. According to Mugnaini in order for Camex to approve the measure, it is necessary first to prove damages, or possible damages, to the sector.
The Secretary of Foreign Trade, Ivan Ramalho, explained that the measure was taken, in part, because of the “expressive growth” of 58.3% of imports from China, in the first quarter.
Purchases of Chinese products jumped from US$ 908 million to US$ 1.437 billion, when compared to the same period of last year. “There is, therefore, an increase much superior to average imports of other countries,” he said.
According to Ramalho, a large part of imports is of industrial components, such as those used in cell phones; but there is also strong growth in other sectors, as it happened with clothing, which rose 148% in value and 261% in weight, when compared to January/April 2004. In threads and fabrics, this value was 170% in volume and 300% in weight.
Agência Brasil