By Patrícia Blanco

? Our government is in this line. Do we wish to do this work? What was it  said the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, upon receiving from Emerson Kapaz, the executive president of the Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition - ETCO, a document with the proposal to create the National System to Combat Unfair Competition Practices.

The audience participated on Tuesday, the 23rd, Paulo Borgerth (Sindicom), Milton Cabral and Luis Conde (Souza Cruz), Hoche Pulcherio (Coca-Cola) and Victorio de Marchi (AMBEV). Also present were Delúbio Soares, Secretary of Planning and Finance of the Workers' Party, Devanir Ribeiro, PT deputy, who represented the Piracy CPI, in addition to Benedito Mariano, Secretary of Security of the Municipality of São Paulo, Luiz Fernando Schmidt,  PT State Representative, from Rio Grande do Sul, and Adeli Sell, Secretary of Development of Porto Alegre.

Decision Moment. The meeting marks a new moment in the ETCO Institute's constructive dialogue with the government. On behalf of the Institute Council,  Emerson Kapaz drew a panel of unfair competition in Pais, with an emphasis on crimes of evasion, smuggling and counterfeiting. He highlighted the imperative need of the government to associate the fight against such practices with the Country's Development Agenda and pointed out some of the negative impacts of unfair competition, among them, the strong links with organized crime, the evasion of taxes and the loss of competitiveness.

The President was very sensitive and immediately took two initiatives. The first was to request the ETCO Institute to detail the proposal to create the National System to Combat Unfair Competition Practices. The second is related to a meeting with representatives of the Ministries of Finance, Mines and Energy, Justice and the Civil House. In the end, a document summarized in the Brasilia Charter was delivered to the President, the result of a Seminar held in October last year to discuss unfair competition in a partnership between the National Directorate of the Workers' Party and the ETCO Institute.