Brazil's first Foreign Trade Regulatory Agenda

The Brazilian government's chamber of foreign trade (CAMEX) has recently issued Brazil’s first Foreign Trade Regulatory Agenda. The Agenda serves as a regulatory planning instrument for 2018 and 2019 and shall assist the Federal Government with the identification and organization of strategic foreign trade regulations. It outlines existing laws and regulations that require review, amendment, update or revocation. CAMEX is part of the Government Council of the Presidency and consists of six ministries (Presidency of the Republic (CC); Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services (MDIC); Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Transport, Ports and Civil Aviation; Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply; Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management; Ministry of the Economy) and a Secretariat (SE-CAMEX), which is provided by MDIC. It is responsible for formulating, coordinating and implementing Brazil’s foreign trade policy.

The Regulatory Agenda was developed with the objective of reinforcing the implementation of good regulatory practices and to establish regulatory priorities, relevant to foreign trade. After a round of public consultation until 31 January 2018, the agenda was published as CAMEX Resolution n°52 on 10 August 2018. Overall, CAMEX identified about 70 laws, decrees and regulations, from eight thematic areas (see list below), which will be monitored by the responsible regulatory bodies and SE-CAMEX to promote a cohesive, coherent and transparent regulatory system.

Among the broad range of topics and specifications, the Resolution suggests a review of the conformity assessment program for home appliances and similar devices with a focus on safety requirements¹ as well as the program for portable tanks used in the inland transport of hazardous products². It also mentions the collection of fees for the non-invasive inspection service (scanning) of containers³ and the revision of the standards of procedures for the safe transit of dangerous products by port facilities⁴. Moreover, it plans a new regulation to enable the expansion of Internet of Things (IoT) applications and machine to machine (M2M) communication⁵.

The Eight Thematic Areas of the Regulatory Agenda
Theme 1    Customs, foreign trade procedures and trade facilitation
Theme 2    Technical and health regulations
Theme 3    Industrial defense products, sensitive goods and chemical control
Theme 4    Financing and export guarantees
Theme 5    Trade defense and rules of origin
Theme 6    Export Processing Zones
Theme 7    Transport and logistics
Theme 8    Services and Public Procurement

Since it is the first time that CAMEX has issued a list of regulatory priorities, it will be important to see how the Agenda will be implemented and if CAMEX will intervene in the process or will take on a rather observing role. This will eventually decide whether the Resolution solely constitutes an instrument of transparency, providing oversight of the priorities from different regulatory agencies or whether it might become an instrument for the promotion of regulatory cohesion and a strategy for industrial development.

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¹ Theme 2, Item 2.3 of the regulatory agenda subjected to INMETRO
² Theme 2, item 2.8 of the regulatory agenda subjected to INMETRO
³ Theme 7, item 7.3 of the regulatory agenda subjected to ANTAQ
⁴ Theme 7, item 7.6 of the regulatory agenda subjected to ANTAQ
⁵ Theme 7, item 7.4 of the regulatory agenda subjected to ANATEL