The federal government is preparing a new plan to help sectors of the Brazilian economy that are still being affected by tariffs imposed by the United States government.
“We are studying so that we can provide support to companies that are in Session 232”, said this Thursday (27) the vice-president of the Republic and minister of Development, Industry and Commerce and Services, Geraldo Alckmin. This section includes, for example, steel and aluminum, which pay an extra tax rate of 50%, in addition to auto parts, whose tariff on the American market is 25%.
According to the president of the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), Aloizio Mercadante, the idea is that the plan is a type of “Sovereign Brazil 2”, a measure created last year to help exporters who were affected by the increase in tariffs, the so-called tariffication.
This new plan, said Mercadante, would only use resources that are already available at BNDES, without having to resort to the Treasury.
“The resources already exist, now they have to be modeled. The Treasury is studying and says it has already designed the initiative. We are now waiting for President Lula to define the strategy, but the resources exist. We had a good experience with Sovereign Brazil and we will create a Sovereign Brazil 2.0. That is the basic idea. We know the path and now it is time to prioritize these sectors that are most penalized”, said Mercadante today, in the capital of São Paulo.
In the first program Sovereign BrazilBNDES even offered an extraordinary credit line of R$30 billion, but only around R$17 billion of these resources were used by companies. The idea is to use part of the remaining resources to help sectors that continue to be affected by tariffs. “These are companies that are being devalued over a longer period of time,” explained Mercadante.
