Cablegate: The U.S.-Brazil Commercial Dialogue
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SUBJECT: The U.S.-Brazil Commercial Dialogue
1. (SBU) Summary. On June 6 in Rio de Janeiro, Secretary of
Commerce Gutierrez and Minister of Development, Industry and Trade
Furlan launched the U.S.-Brazil Commercial Dialogue. The Dialogue
was launched as a follow up on commitments made in the Joint
Declaration issued on the occasion of President George W. Bush's
visit to Brazil in November 2005. Four working groups covering
business facilitation, standards cooperation, intellectual property
rights cooperation and export and investment promotion met and
agreed upon a series of initiatives designed to enhance our
bilateral commercial relationship by increasing trade, investment
and competitiveness. Details of the agreements are provided below.
The working group meetings were followed by a reporting session
where working group leads detailed the results and next steps. It
was agreed that each working group would complete a report detailing
achievements by the end of August, in anticipation of a second
Commercial Dialogue tentatively scheduled for Washington, D.C. in
September. End Summary.
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U.S. Brazil Commercial Dialogue - Plenary Session
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2. (SBU) Both the Secretary and Minister used the plenary session
to introduce their respective teams, discuss the importance of the
Dialogue, note the need for ambitious and concrete results and
reemphasize the significance that both Presidents' placed on the
upcoming discussion. It was agreed that four(4) working groups
would be established - business facilitation, standards cooperation,
intellectual property rights cooperation and export and investment
promotion. They noted that this was the beginning stage of an
ongoing process and that they both hoped it would lead to results
that would significantly increase our $40 billion bilateral trade.
Working group leads and their teams were instructed to conduct their
sessions, and to report back at the end of each hour-long meeting.
In the interim, Secretary Gutierrez and Minister Furlan held a
concurrent bilateral meeting (see Septel).
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Business Facilitation
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3. (SBU) Chaired by Commerce Assistant Secretary for Market Access
and Compliance David Bohigian and Mauricio Lucena Do Val, Director
of Trade and Services Policy (SCS). The USG extended an invitation
to a working level commercial dialogue meeting in the United States
focused on the theme of "Moving Goods Efficiently: Opportunities and
Challenges," a public/private sector event designed to highlight the
competitive advantage of moving goods quickly and efficiently across
borders. A/S Bohigian noted that in order to be effective the
working level visits needed to include both MDIC and Receita
Federal. MDIC noted for the record its interest but also its
inability to involve other agencies in the discussions. Instead,
MDIC requested an exchange of detailed information on express
shipments. MDIC raised similar concerns when A/S Bohigian proposed
collaboration on an Information Exchange Forum (IEF) on Medical
Device and Pharmaceutical Regulations. MDIC indicated that medical
devices were outside its competency and fell within ANVISA's
jurisdiction. A/S Bohigian responded that he would raise the issue
of involving other key agencies in the Dialogue to Secretary
Gutierrez and Minister Furlan during the reporting session.
4. (SBU) MDIC noted its interest in the area of business
registrations and asked for detailed information pertaining to
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registrations in each of its 5 largest U.S. state export markets.
(Minister Furlan had earlier emphasized his goal of cutting the time
it took to establish a business in Brazil from 157 days to 15.) A/S
Bohigian noted that business registrations are a state (and not a
federal) issue in the U.S. He presented MDIC with an informational
report detailing business registration regulations and practices in
several U.S. states, and offered the Commerce Department as a
liaison between MDIC and relevant state officials. Regional
Director Angulo noted that TDA could organize technical visits for
MDIC technicians to visit two or three states in the United States
to learn about business registration processes and other areas of
interest covered during this breakout session.
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Export and Investment Promotion
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5. (SBU) Chaired by John Harris, Minister Counselor for Commercial
Affairs and Fabio Martins Faria-Relator, Director of the Department
of Planning Development of Foreign Trade (DEPLA). In the area of
export promotion, it was agreed that Commerce and APEX (the
Brazilian Export and Investments Promotion Agency) would draft a
plan to jointly recruit trade shows (after the August meeting with
MATSO). In addition, several videoconferences were agreed to for
the purpose of exchanging information on OPIC, USTDA, BNDES and APEX
services. Finally, DOC and MDIC agreed to an exchange of
information and experiences on methods used in the collection,
classification and distribution of statistical data on international
trade in services. The U.S. will exchange information on
statistical methodologies to track cross border movements of
services professionals and trade in services.
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Intellectual Property Protection
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6. (SBU) Chaired by Stephen Pinkos, Deputy Director of the United
States Patent and Trademark Office and Roberto Jaguaribe, President
of the National Institute of Intellectual Property Rights (INPI).
INPI and PTO agreed to move forward on technical cooperation to meet
the approaching September deadline for the second U.S.-Brazil
Commercial Dialogue. PTO and INPI further agreed that technical
assistance on information technology would be a second key area of
assistance in which PTO and INPI would begin their cooperation. In
terms of technology and automation, it was tentatively agreed that
INPI representatives involved in IT, including the Brazilian
government agency SERPRO, would travel to PTO in August 2006 for one
week, to receive training on trademark automation, one day of which
would focus on patent automation. INPI also stated its interest in
having PTO examiners in the field of electrical engineering,
biotechnology, and chemical arts visit INPI for 1-2 weeks and share
their expertise. No firm date was set for training of examiners.
7. (SBU) INPI also expressed interest in obtaining PTO training
materials on DVD or CD-ROM. PTO promised to follow-up to see if PTO
has such multi-media training materials available and whether PTO
could distribute them to INPI. Finally, INPI officials stated that
they would be interested in visiting the U.S. to observe how the
trademark and patent appeals process functions. No date was set on
this cooperation.
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Standards
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8. (SBU) Chaired by Dr. Hratch Semerjian, Deputy Director of the
National Institute of Standards and Technology and Prof. Joao Herz
da Jornada, President INMETRO. NIST and INMETRO agreed upon a
six-point program designed to promote innovation and growth. First,
they will establish a Digital Video Conference (DVC) series to
promote better understanding of the standards, conformity assessment
and technical regulation systems in place in each country, in
collaboration with other government agencies, ABNT (Brazil) and ANSI
(U.S.), and other private sector organizations. This DVC series
would be lead by ITA's Office of Standards. Second, they will
establish a collaborative program on Metrology and Standards for
Biofuels. Third, NIST will organize training workshops in chemical
and materials metrology to help strengthen the INMETRO programs in
these areas. Fourth, a new INMETRO/NIST Metrology Post-Doctoral
Fellowship Program will be established, starting in the second
quarter of 2007. New Ph.Ds from Brazil will spend 1.5 years at NIST
and then 1.5 years at INMETRO to promote sharing of experience in
measurement science between the two institutions. Fifth, INMETRO and
NIST will schedule a bilateral workshop in early 2007 in the U.S.,
to identify and initiate collaborative activities in measurement
standards and technology in high-priority areas. Finally, they
agreed to develop an exchange program to share best practices in
management of S&T programs that impact innovation and
competitiveness.
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Reporting Session
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9. (SBU) The work group meetings were followed by a short
reporting session, where a representative (two U.S. and two
Brazilian) from each of the four work groups presented the results
to Secretary Gutierrez and Minister Furlan. The group spokesperson
delineated the results as noted in paragraphs 2 through 8 above. AS
Bohigian observed that it would be critical to the business
facilitation process that MDIC include other relevant entities in
the discussion, particularly Receita Federal and ANVISA. Both
Secretary Gutierrez and Minister Furlan agreed that the Dialogue
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needed to involve all relevant agencies.
10. (SBU) Minister Furlan requested that a second plenary session
take place in Washington, D.C. in September (date TBD). Secretary
Gutierrez agreed, and both concluded that each working group would
need to complete a report of key achievements by the end of August
in order to ensure that the September meeting was a success. They
both also stated that the September meeting, in addition to dealing
with agreed upon issues, should also work to set an ambitious
overall goal for the U.S.-Brazil Commercial Dialogue to give the
effort an overall meaningful objective and to ensure its relevance.
CHICOLA