MOSCOW (MRC) -- The United States has asked Brazil to consider lifting tariffs imposed on its ethanol exports and is hopeful of a positive outcome, reported Reuters with reference to a senior official at the US Department of Agriculture.
US Department of Agriculture Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney said Brazil has not indicated that they would lift them. "Our hope is that the warm relationship between our presidents and how that cascades down might let us find some relief," he told a conference call.
Brazil currently charges a 20-percent tariff on ethanol imports surpassing 150 million liters a quarter in a bid to shield local farmers from foreign competition.
McKinney said Brazil had previously said it would reassess the tariffs two years from the September 2017 date on which they were imposed. “You can imagine there’s always run-ups to that. Nobody said it is a hard date and that’s another reason we are having a discussion,” he said.
As MRC wrote previously, in February 2018, a significant new player emerged in the Brazilian biofuels industry. A grand opening was held signaling the start of operations at FS Bioenergia, a USD115 million corn-only ethanol production facility located in Lucas do Rio Verde, Mato Grosso. FS Bioenergia utilized process technologies from ICM, Inc. of Colwich, Kansas. Since 1995, ICM has provided engineering, construction and operational services for more than 100 ethanol plants in North America.
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