The president of the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex), Jorge Viana, said on Tuesday (22) that the tariff imposed by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to Brazil is not a “problem” of trade, but the action of political groups linked to former President Jair Bolsonaro.
“I can’t find the problem we have with the United States so that I can act. Because what is coming to us is not a trade problem, it is a perverse family action, extremist groups who want to damage the country, they want to damage those who work, damage companies and damage our country’s sovereignty. And therefore we should be united as never before,” Viana said.
The statement was made during a signing ceremony of an APEX agreement with the National Union of Family Farming and Solidarity Economy Cooperatives (Unicafes), aimed at exporting agroindustrial products produced by the approximately 1,500 cooperatives linked to the organization.
Cooperatives
Named an Exporting Industrial Extension Project (Peiex), the action is intended exclusively for cooperatives and aims to give subsidies so that they can reach external markets through training.
According to data from Unicafes, 92.6% of cooperatives adopt sustainable production practices; 75% are agribusiness and 73.4% promote the inclusion of young people and women. The appreciation of women is one of the axes of the project, in recognition of the work developed and the dedication to the cultivation of their lands and the development of the communities where they operate.
The president of the Unicafes Confederation, Fatima Torres, stressed that the initiative will help increase the strength and competitiveness of cooperatives in opening new markets, both outside and within the country.
“We will be providing training for our cooperatives and this training serves for markets. Of course APEX has a focus on the international market, but this training comes to promote, increasingly, the maturity of the management of our cooperatives. And then, the other thing is that, from this agreement, we will increasingly be able to internationalize our solidarity cooperativism,” he said.
