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1400 GENEVA TIME ( 1300  GMT) 9 MARCH 2009  
 
PRESS/TPRB/312 
9 March 2009 
 
(09-1181) 
 
TRADE POLICY REVIEW: BRAZIL 
Promoting market competition would help sustain economic 
growth  
Since its last review in 2004, Brazil has continued with the gradual modernization and streamlining 
of its trade regime, while also increasing average tariff protection. The economy has taken 
advantage of recent reforms and a favourable environment to grow at an annual average rate of 
4.5% during 2004-2007, and 6.3% on the 12 months to September of last year, according to the WTO Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of Brazil. 
 
The report notes that, despite these positive achievements, and in order to meet the new challenges presented by the current world economic  slowdown, Brazil needs to press on with its 
efforts to give additional impetus to trade and investment, including by lowering effective tariff 
protection, reducing the use of import prohibitio ns and providing greater predictability to the 
foreign investment and trade regime. 
 
Solving the long standing problem of high domestic  interest rates and taking additional steps to 
promote market competition and an efficient allocation of resources would help Brazil sustain 
economic growth and continue improving th e living standards of its population.  
 The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government of Brazil , will be the basis for 
the fifth TPR of Brazil by the Trade Policy Re view Body of the WTO on 9 and 11 March 2009. 
 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/tp312_e.htm  
 
• Secretariat reports 
> Contents and summary observations  
> Economic environment  > Trade and investment regimes  
> Trade policies and practices by measure  
> Trade policies by sector  > Appendix tables  
• Report by the Government of Brazil 
• Chairperson’s concluding remarks  
• Minutes of the meeting (available appr oximately six weeks after the meeting). PRESS/TPRB/312 
Page 2 of 2 
 
 
Note 
Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO Agreement, 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: 
Fiji: 25 and 27 March 2009 
European Communities: 6 and 8 April 2009 
Mozambique: 22 and 24 April 2009 
 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  
 
 
END