Brazil Lowers Import Tax on Sardines

The measure will remain in effect for 180 days and is limited to a maximum of 50,000 tonnes, reports Brazil-ArabNewsAgency.

The ruling, issued by the Foreign Trade Chamber (Camex), was published this Tuesday 21 August on the Official Gazette. Morocco, an Arab country located in North Africa, is one of the leading suppliers of the fishery product in the world.

According to the ministry, the lowered tax is aimed to prevent preserve industries from becoming undersupplied during a period in which fishing is interrupted in Brazil.

The gazette includes two other Camex rulings, comprising 502 ex tariffs on capital goods, both new and renewed, and 28 ex tariffs on computing and telecom items, of which 28 are renewed and seven are new. Ex tariff is the temporary lowering of the import tax on goods which are not manufactured in the country.

The ministry estimates that imports of the products covered will amount to US$1.63 billion. The leading importing industries for these products are power generation, auto, graphical, capital goods, and glass. The leading suppliers are United States, Germany, France, Finland, and Belgium.

On the other hand, the Gazette includes a Camex ruling raising the import taxes on no-break power supplies, from 14 to 20 per cent, on memory cards, from zero to 16 per cent, and of printed circuit boards, from 10 to 12 per cent. The measure will remain in effect until 2015 and raises the taxes to rates higher than those of the Mercosurs Common External Tariff (TEC, in the Portuguese acronym). The decision is intended by the government to encourage local manufacturing.