Source: Brasil Econômico - São Paulo / SP - 04/05/2010

Brazil and the United States announced today (3) in Brasília that they will encourage partnerships between companies from both countries with a focus on innovation and the resumption of bilateral trade.

To this end, working groups were created dedicated to eliminating bureaucracy in reciprocal patent registration, the development of ecological technologies, the promotion of services and the technical standardization of products.

“The initiative called trade dialogue, opened in 2008, has achieved important progress, which will result in more investments between countries and even the joint search for third markets,” said Francisco Sanchez, undersecretary for foreign trade administration at the US Department of Commerce, on his first international trip in office.

The Foreign Trade Secretary of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade of Brazil, Welber Barral, who participated in two days of meetings with Sanchez, called the agreement historic.

One of the authorities' expectations is to see the USA resume its position as Brazil's main trading partner, lost in 2009 due to the global financial crisis.

"We will have a new meeting in September, but we are sure of a more constant contact to solve more immediate problems," he said. To this end, innovation and industrial property registration agencies on both sides will cooperate in the areas of technology transfer, services, energy and the sustainable supply chain.

Barral cites the case of machinery and medicines that are no longer exported due to lack of common specification. One of the sectors considered to have the greatest potential for development is franchising, which has the world leadership in the American market and the Brazilian in the fifth position.

Retaliation

Sanchez stressed that the two countries' clash at the World Trade Organization (WTO) involving American cotton subsidies is a matter of the moment, which does not hinder strategic and long-term trade planning.

"We recognize the importance and the interdependence of our markets and the role that adding value plays in increasing competitiveness and economic growth," he said, not wanting to spell out the position as a reaction to the Chinese advance in the world.

The overcoming of impasses related to the intellectual property theme would serve, according to him, one of the engines of commercial cooperation.

"In any mature relationship, we will have disagreements, but the commercial dialogue is an opportunity for us to grow and overcome any cyclical disagreement that we may face," he added.