OECD approves invitation to Brazil to negotiate entry into the organization

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The decision means that negotiations will now formally begin. The OECD is expected to officially confirm the approval of the invitation after the Brazilian government receives the letter from the entity later today.

The Council of Ministers of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) approved today an invitation to Brazil to “open membership discussions” in the entity, as Valor found out.

It means that negotiations will now formally start. The OECD should officially confirm the approval of the invitation after the Brazilian government receives today the letter from the entity.

Joining the OECD has been one of the foreign policy priorities of Michel Temer’s and Jair Bolsonaro’s governments. And it is a victory for Brazilian diplomacy since there has always been strong resistance from France, mainly because of conflicts with Bolsonaro’s policies.

The French government has joined the consensus but “will be demanding and vigilant” in negotiations with Brazil, including environmental issues.

Today’s OECD approval means just that – starting negotiations. It can take three to five years until the country completes the compliance process with the 253 OECD legal instruments and receives the approval to become a member.

So the invitation to join will come after the negotiations, not before 2025.

The expectation in Europe was so far that this would hardly happen before the Brazilian presidential election because of the “great reticence” of some members towards President Jair Bolsonaro.

Emmanuel Macron’s government has consistently signaled that it did not want to give any validation to Bolsonaro’s environmental policy, according to sources. There is also the personal feud between the two presidents, fueled, for example, by Bolsonaro’s ironies at the aesthetics of Macron’s wife.

There are six current candidates currently to become OECD members: three South American (Brazil, Argentina, and Peru) and three European (Romania, Bulgaria, and Croatia). The question is when to begin formal negotiations. The pace of entry as a member would depend on how each one advances in the talks to conform to the entity’s rules that have influence.

In a meeting in Rome last November, OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann signaled to Bolsonaro that Brazil was an earnest candidate, with a vocation to be a member, has already adhered to more than 100 of the OECD’s 253 legal instruments.

For his part, the Brazilian president insisted that public opinion was poorly informed about his environmental policy, which would be “deformed” by the press.

In Brasilia, the invitation was received as a new impulse to continue reforms in the country. “The OECD invitation translates international recognition for the agenda of structural economic reforms led by Minister Guedes and supported by President Bolsonaro,” said the Secretary of International Affairs of the Ministry of Economy, Erivaldo Gomes.

“At the same time, it reinforces the importance of following up on these reforms, especially the tax reform, a necessary condition to complete joining the organization,” Gomes added.