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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRASILIA 001231 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS USTR:MSULLIVAN 
DOE FOR GWARD/SLADISLAW 
NSC FOR FEARS 
USDOC FOR 3134/USFCS/OIO/WH/SHUPKA 
USDOC FOR 4332/ITA/MAC/WH/OLAC/JANDERSEN/ADRISCOLL/MWAR D 
STATE PASS OPIC FOR MORONESE, RIVERA, MERVENNE 
STATE PASS EXIM FOR NATALIE WEISS, COCONNER 
STATE PASS USTDA FOR AMCKINNEY 
TREASURY FOR OASIA:DDOUGLASS 
AID/W FOR LAC/AA 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD ECON KIPR EINV ENRG BEXP BR
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. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
U.S. Brazil Commercial Dialogue - Plenary Session 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶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). 
 
--------------------- 
Business Facilitation 
--------------------- 
 
¶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 
 
BRASILIA 00001231  002 OF 003 
 
 
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. 
 
------------------------------- 
Export and Investment Promotion 
------------------------------- 
 
¶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. 
 
-------------------------------- 
Intellectual Property Protection 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶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. 
 
--------- 
Standards 
 
BRASILIA 00001231  003 OF 003 
 
 
--------- 
 
¶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. 
 
----------------- 
Reporting Session 
----------------- 
 
¶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 
 
SIPDIS 
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