Legality Movement in Campinas

By ETCO
30/01/2019

Correio Popular, 01/12/2017

by Jonas Donizeti

Campinas is taking an important step in the fight against organized crime and illegal trade: the launch of the Legality Movement, which will promote the union of forces between the National Front of Mayors (FNP), the City of Campinas and civil society to fight the market illegal and the routing effectively and forcefully.
This should be the flag of all Brazilian municipalities, and the partnership between FNP, the Municipality of Campinas, the (ETCO) and the National Forum Against Piracy and Illegality (FNCP), is a sign of our management's commitment to this objective.
About 70 business entities and civil society organizations affected by these illegal smuggling practices support the initiative. The movement has already been launched in São Paulo and will be replicated to other Brazilian municipalities, to build a more developed society, with more jobs, security, income, collection and quality public services.
In Campinas, only in 2016, the sale of smuggled and pirated products generated a tax evasion of R $ 850 million to municipal public coffers, a value that could be reverted to the benefit of the population in the form of more health, education, transportation, security.
In Brazil, smuggling and counterfeiting of products caused a loss of R $ 130 billion. The fight against trade in smuggled and pirated goods is complex, as it involves the alignment of forces from the federal, state and municipal governments. But the source of this problem has a powerful economic component: the huge tax disparity between Brazil and neighboring countries fuels this traffic, especially coming from Paraguay, responsible for most of the products that enter the country illegally.
The illegal cigarette trade, the leading contraband in the. city, as in the rest of the country, is an example of the negative impact on society.
Brazilian manufacturers, who pay up to 86% of taxes, are obliged to live with unfair competition from Paraguayan companies taxed at a bankrupt 16%. This caused the smuggling of the product in Campinas to reach 48% this year, an increase of 11 percentage points in relation to last year. But smuggling does not only bring financial losses to the city.
The activity is one of the main forms of financing for criminal organizations, which dominate their commercialization throughout the country, and also serves to mask other criminal modalities, since smuggled products often enter Brazil together with weapons and drugs. In addition, illegal products have no quality control and do not follow Brazilian inspection, putting the health of the population at risk.
Combating illegal trade is a measure of respect for those who work correctly, respect for the issue of taxes so that the public power is able to provide better services to the population.

It is important to make it clear that popular and illegal trade should not be confused. Nothing against popular commerce. Everything against illegal. This is the message we want to get across. In assuming the public commitment to make the fight against the illegal market a priority, the City Hall. shows that, although complex, the problem can and must be faced. Only then will we put not only Campinas, but Brazil as a whole, on the path of development, legality and justice.

Jonas Donizeti is mayor of Campinas and president of FNP - National Front of Mayors