Source: O Estado de S. Paulo, 15/07/2007

GENEVA – Brazil could immediately increase its exports by US$ 530 million a year just by reducing bureaucracy and improving foreign trade services. In the medium term, all of Latin America could increase its sales by 20% if a comprehensive reform in customs and infrastructure were carried out, according to a study by the World Bank. This without any tariffs or barriers in rich countries being removed.

While governments face off at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to determine the future tariffs that each product will receive, the World Bank points out that another negotiation, which takes place with the aim of facilitating trade, could generate gains for the world economy. of US$ 377 billion with improvements in customs, ports, laws and infrastructure in the services sector related to foreign trade. As of today, the WTO will once again debate the more than 40 proposals presented by different countries to negotiate these reforms.

“This is one of the sectors of the negotiations that will most generate a positive impact on foreign trade,” said Leandro Rocha de Araújo, a lawyer at Pinheiro Neto and currently in Geneva, where he participates in the WTO's trade facilitation program.

The World Bank estimates that world trade would increase by US$107 billion just by improving ports, plus another US$33 billion from improved customs efficiency. Simplification of laws for exporters and importers would generate another US$ 83 billion. But the biggest gains would come from an infrastructure reform in the services sector related to foreign trade: US$ 154 billion.

The calculations still make it clear that Latin America would be one of the regions that would benefit most from measures like these, with a 20% increase in its exports if a broad reform is adopted in the trading systems. Just with the end of bureaucracy, sales would increase by 1%, in addition to another 7% with the improvement of ports.

For Rocha, the effects in Brazil will be quite significant. “The biggest impact on the country as a result of these negotiations would be the increase in efficiency and predictability in foreign trade transactions, which would reduce costs not only for the private sector, but also for the government”, he says. He recalls that, today, a mere formal query from a company to find out how to classify its product can take a year to get a response from the IRS.

The biggest gains from a reform, however, would be from Asia, with an increase in exports of up to 40%. China alone would have its sales increased by US$ 120 billion. One of the factors that will most contribute to these gains is the reduction of the waiting time for goods to be released.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), while a good needs just two days to be exported from Canada to the US, the same product would take 61 days to leave the ports of Kenya. Not by chance, the OECD estimates that one of the factors evaluated by multinationals to invest in a country is the ease they will have to import and export their products. Philips Electronics, for example, decided to create a department with more than 150 employees just to ensure that its trade in more than 60 countries and involving US$ 30 billion does not suffer at customs.

Proposals

In an attempt to create new rules, the proposals that will be debated at the WTO include the adoption of risk management policies, the end of the obligation to use customs brokers and even the creation of a single window where exporters and importers can submit their documents and information.

One of the most sensitive issues would be the harmonization of customs procedures based on international standards, something that not all countries agree. According to European negotiators, however, the big obstacle is not in the debates between the proposals. The problem is that the initiatives will only be adopted when the entire Doha Round is closed, including the dispute over the liberalization of agricultural markets, something that no one dares to predict when it will be concluded.