VZCZCXRO3995
RR RUEHRG
DE RUEHBR #2174/01 3271449
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 231449Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0507
INFO RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 5472
RUEHSO/AMCONSUL SAO PAULO 1209
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 7406
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRASILIA 002174 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS USTR KATE DUCKWORTH 
 
E.O. 12958:N/A 
TAGS: ETRD ECON PREL BR
SUBJECT:  BRAZIL: HEAD OF FTA UNIT DISCUSSES CURRENT NEGOTIATIONS 
 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY: In a recent meeting with Evandro Didonet, Director 
of the Department of International Negotiations at Itamaraty, 
Didonet reviewed the status of ongoing Mercosul FTA negotiations, 
including Israel, GCC, India, EU and the preferential agreement with 
SACU.  Brazil does not negotiate FTAs bilaterally, but only with 
Mercosul partners.  No FTA has yet completed the negotiation, 
signature and ratification process.  A cumbersome Congressional 
ratification process will be a challenge for any eventual FTA 
ratification.  END SUMMARY 
 
----------------------------------------- 
MRE International Negotiations Department 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Evandro Didonet, Director of the Department of International 
Negotiations at Itamaraty, explained the Foreign Ministry's 
structure dealing with trade policy in a recent meeting with 
EconCouns and PolCouns.  There are three departments for trade 
policy.  Director Alfonso do Cardoso leads the department 
responsible for Mercosul and for regional integration.  Director 
Carlos Marcio Cozendey leads the Department of Economic Affairs, 
covering WTO and other international negotiations.  Director 
Didonet's department is responsible for FTA negotiations.  While the 
Mercosul office handles regional integration work within Latin 
America, Didonet's office handles the United States and Canada. 
Didonet's Department includes five senior diplomats and ten junior 
diplomats, who coordinate with AgMin, MDIC and other ministries to 
lead trade negotiations. 
 
¶3. (U) Didonet explained that Brazil always negotiates FTAs jointly 
with the Mercosul bloc.  However, he emphasized, negotiations always 
build in "flexibility" for each Mercosul partner.  For example, he 
offered, Argentina has sensitivities regarding agrochemicals, so 
only the other three Mercosul members made market access offers in 
this area in negotiations with Israel.  Similarly, part of Israel's 
agricultural offer applies only to Paraguay and Uruguay; Brazil and 
Argentina ceded certain opportunities so that Israel would not feel 
threatened by too much access, Didonet explained.  This 
"flexibility" is an internal principle as well, said Didonet 
alluding to member exemptions to the Mercosul common external 
tariff, "allowing countries to feel more comfortable to be in 
Mercosul."  Mercosul FTAs do not necessarily include services, IPR 
or investment chapters.  No Mercosul FTAs have been signed, ratified 
and implemented, according to Didonet. 
 
----------------- 
FTAs and Congress 
----------------- 
 
¶4. (U) The process to ratify international agreements, including 
trade agreements, is lengthy in Brazil, according to Didonet. 
Agreements must go first to the Chamber of Deputies, where they are 
reviewed (consecutively, not in parallel) by the Foreign Affairs 
committee, Economic Affairs committee, Justice and Legal Affairs 
committee, plus environment or other relevant committees.  Each 
committee must approve the agreement before it goes on to the next 
committee and eventually to the plenary for a full Chamber vote. 
The agreement then goes to the Senate, where a similar process 
unfolds.  The situation is further complicated, added Didonet, by 
the rule that Congress must first consider any executive order 
signed by the President to decide whether to turn it into 
legislation before any other legislative business can be taken up. 
This requirement considerably disrupts legislative calendar 
planning. (Note:  the November 19 Gazeta Mercantil reported that 
overall 165 international treaties are backlogged in Congress for 
ratification). 
 
-------------------- 
Current Negotiations 
-------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Turning to specific negotiations, Didonet indicated that 
negotiations on a goods-only FTA with Israel are close to 
completion; the sticking point remains agricultural market access, 
where Brazil and Argentina are satisfied but Paraguay and Uruguay 
have remaining concerns.   In Mercosul negotiations with the GCC 
(which include investment and services sections), "we are not as 
close as it may seem," Didonet explained.  While texts and product 
lists are well advanced, a fundamental issue remains.  GCC's most 
competitive sector and primary area of interest is petrochemicals, 
the area where Brazilian industry has significant concerns.  Didonet 
underlined that as far as GCC is concerned, petrochemicals market 
access is the only reason to negotiate an FTA.  Mercosul agreed on a 
framework for FTA negotiations with both Israel and GCC in 2005 and 
began negotiating in 2006, according to Didonet. 
 
¶6. (SBU) The agreement Mercosul has been negotiting with SACU is 
 
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not an FTA, but rather a preference agreement.  In October in 
Pretoria, negotiators closed agricultural and non-agricultural 
market access sections of the text.  The agreement covers only 1000 
eight-digit tariff lines (15 percent of two-way trade in tariff-line 
terms; Brazil exports about 1.5 billion USD to SACU and SACU exports 
400-500 million dollars to Brazil, per Didonet).  The parties hope 
to sign the agreement soon, possibly at the Mercosul Summit. 
Remaining work includes rules of origin and free trade zones (a SACU 
concern).  SPS and TBT are done and are very short sections 
acknowledging their importance and welcoming possible future work 
toward mutual recognition of standards.  The SACU agreement includes 
an annex on customs cooperation, a first step toward negotiating an 
FTA in the future, according to Didonet.  Brazilian industry had 
wanted more access into SACU, but the African parties simply were 
not ready yet.  As would be the process for FTAs, the agreement will 
go through all four Mercosul members' congresses after signature for 
ratification.  However, SACU's internal procedures to agree to the 
text and to sign are apparently lengthy and complex and may delay 
beyond the Mercosul Summit.  Didonet hinted at some frustration in 
negotiating with SACU; before the October negotiations, the last 
negotiating session had been in August 2006 and "ever since, we've 
been knocking on the door - it seems hard for them to get ready." 
 
¶7. (SBU) Mercosul is also negotiating a small agreement with India. 
Five percent of eight-digit tariff lines (450 lines) are under 
negotiation.  According to Didonet, India is not interested in 
broadening the negotiations until a 2005 agreement with Mercosul is 
ratified (only Paraguay congress has ratified, while Argentina, 
Uraguay and Brazil have not).  The agreement awaits a vote on the 
floor of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies before proceeding to the 
Senate.  Per Didonet, Amorim made a personal effort to get the 
agreement through committees in the Chamber, but inertia in 
congress, rather than any political objection, continues to delay 
progress. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Didonet acknowledged that negotiations with the EU have 
stalled.  Lists have been exchanged and texts prepared, but 
unresolved demands remain on both sides.  The EU has indicated it 
wants "clarity" on Doha negotiations before re-engaging with 
Mercosul.  He emphasized that EU claims both sides await this 
"clarity" before proceeding, but it is really just the EU.  The EU 
is offering quotas for agricultural trade rather than unrestricted 
access and needs to see what it gets overall in Doha before deciding 
what subset Mercosul can have - a position Brazil is not sympathetic 
to support. 
 
¶9. (SBU) In addition to negotiations, Mercosul also has "dialogues," 
with Australia, Japan, Korea, China, and is starting a dialogue with 
Russia. 
 
------------------- 
FUTURE NEGOTIATIONS 
------------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Didonet noted that Mercosul is in internal discussions on 
whether and which new negotiations to launch next year.  The 
priority is to complete on-going negotiations, particularly the EU 
agreement, according to Didonet.  In addition, Mercosul is 
discussing whether to agree in future only to negotiate full FTAs 
and to avoid interim agreements like the preference agreement with 
SACU.  Didonet advocates only negotiating full FTAs rather than ad 
hoc time-consuming lesser value agreements.  Asked about the effect 
Venezuela's entry into Mercosul might have on the various 
negotiations, Didonet confirmed that Venezuelan representatives are 
currently sitting in on various negotiations as observers.  He said 
that negotiators would address Venezuelan participation once their 
entry is approved, but was clearly aware that it held the potential 
for complicating negotiations enormously. 
 
¶11. (SBU) COMMENT:  Evandro Didonet is a knowledgeable and 
experienced trade diplomat.  He travels frequently and is relatively 
rarely in Brasilia.  He is a pragmatic negotiator, clearly as 
well-versed in the political priorities that are central to 
Mercosul's existence as he is in the economic issues that shape 
Mercosul's negotiating positions.  Taken together, Didonet's 
comments on the various negotiations under way between Mercosul and 
other groups provide a remarkably candid assessment of both the 
highly political nature of these negotiations and the fact that most 
of them are either stalled or economically insignificant.  END 
COMMENT 
 
CHICOLA