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PRESS/TPRB/239 
29 November 2004 
 
(04-5150) 
TRADE POLICY REVIEW: BRAZIL 
Brazil continues to liberalize; further steps would benefit the 
economy and world trade 
Trade, particularly, exports, has come to play an increasingly important role in Brazil and has been 
key in its rapid recovery from an economic rece ssion in 2003; further liberalization would promote 
greater competition and efficiency and help ensure the sustainability of growth, according to a 
report on the trade policies and practices of Brazil released by the WTO Secretariat. 
 Since its last Review in 2000, Brazil has continued to liberalize and enhance the transparency of, 
its trade regime. These efforts have paid-off in the form of a more flexible economy, as evidenced 
by the resilience shown to a series of shocks ex perienced during recent years. However, Brazil 
would gain by addressing remaining economic dist ortions and barriers to market access. Lowering 
tariffs would facilitate the access of domestic consumers and producers to the world’s most 
competitive products and reduce the need for tariff concession schemes. Taking additional steps to lower the costs of financial intermediation would reduce the need for using targeted support 
schemes, which risk distorting resource allocation and may burden taxpayers. 
 Brazil is an active participant in the multilateral trading system, but has not yet ratified the Fourth 
and Fifth Protocols to the GATS. Expanding the sco pe of Brazil’s GATS commitments, as well as 
narrowing the gap between applied and bound tariffs  would enhance the transparency of Brazil’s 
trade regime. An ambitious liberalization agenda would not only benefit Brazil but also help bring 
about a successful conclusion to the Doha Development Agenda, which Brazil has been 
instrumental in moving forward and in which it has a major stake in view of the increasingly global reach of its trade interests, the report says. 
 
The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government of Brazil  will be the basis for 
the fourth Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Brazil by  the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 29 
November and 1 December 2004. 
 The following documents are available in MS Wo rd format on the WTO web-site. They can be 
downloaded at http://www.wto.org/english/ tratop_e/tpr_e/tp239.htm  
  
 PRESS/TPRB/239 
Page 2 of 2 
 
 
 • Secretariat report 
> Contents and summary observations  
> Economic environment  > Trade and investment regimes  
> Trade policies and practices by measure 
> Trade policies by sector  > Appendix tables  
• Government report  
• Chairperson’s concluding remarks  
• Minutes of the meeting (available appr oximately six weeks after the meeting). 
Note 
Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements, in which member 
countries’ trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals. Significant 
developments that may have an impact on the global trading system are also monitored. For each 
review, two documents are prepared: a policy stat ement by the government of the member under 
review, and a detailed report written independently by the WTO Secretariat. These two documents 
are then discussed by the WTO’s full membership in  the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB). These 
documents and the proceedings of the TPRB’s meetings are published shortly afterwards.  
 
Print copies of the TPR publications are available for sale from the WTO Secretariat, Centre William 
Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1211 Genève 21 and through the on-line bookshop at https://secure.vtx.ch/shop/boutiques/wto_index_boutique.html  or follow this path :  
www.wto.org >resources > publications > trade policy reviews  
 The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press , 4611-F Assembly 
Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States 
Next reviews: 
Switzerland/Liechtenstein : 15 and 17 December 2004 
Jamaica : 17 and 19 January 2005 
  
For a full list of previous trade policy reviews and the full programme of future reviews go to 
http://www.wto.org/english/trat op_e/tpr_e/tpr_ e.htm#reviews 
or follow this path : www.wto.org > trade topics > trade policy reviews 
 
  
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