Brazil needs to be paid for preserving the environment, says Economy Minister

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On May 9, Brazil’s Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, said Brazil needs to receive money for preserving the environment.

In an event in Brasilia, Guedes said he is working on three agreements with the OECD, such as stimulating sustainable production, higher taxation on polluting products, and a way to earn to preserve fauna and flora.

In Guedes’ view, the world will face three major challenges, and Brazil is part of the solution. They are:

• energy security
• food security
• climate changes

WAR IN UKRAINE

Guedes said the conflict with Russia and Ukraine helped disrupt the production and supply of supplies. “This is the time of reconfiguration of global production chains,” he said.

According to the minister, logistical ease will be an increasingly relevant characteristic when making agreements. He said there is no point in having the supply too far away, facing the possibility of blockages by geopolitical risks.

“So semiconductors produced in Asia need to be closer,” he declared. He mentioned the need for energy production to be in geopolitically reliable countries. Currently, Europe is hostage to Russian oil and gas.

For the minister, Brazil is close to several nations and is reliable.

EXPENSIVE FOOD

Guedes said that the war in Ukraine and the pandemic have made food more expensive all over the planet, not only in Brazil. To blame the Bolsonaro government for that is intellectual dishonesty.

INVESTMENTS

Guedes said that Brazil has already contracted R$860 billion of investments for the next ten years and is reaching almost 20% of investment GDP per year.

For him, the country can no longer make these investments in construction works, railroads, and ports, for example, with its own budget. He said that the public investment model has sunk, polluted the business environment, and exhausted itself from corruption.

“We are slowly recovering the investment capacity.”

TAX REFORM

Guedes advocated a leaner tax reform to attract investment. He cited the text that changed the Income Tax rules, approved in the House, and stuck in the Senate for lack of consensus.

Guedes also wants to reduce taxes on industry, the IPI. According to him, the country has all the raw materials, such as iron ore, but buys steel plates from abroad because producing here is too expensive.

“The IPI is a tax against Brazilian industry,” he said.

With information from Poder360