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Sep 25

Brazilian judge orders a statewide, 24-hour suspension of Google and its video sharing web site

A regional judge has ordered the arrest of Google’s president in Brazil, Fabio Jose Silva Coelho, after the company failed to take down YouTube videos.

Judge ordered a statewide, 24-hour suspension of Google and its video sharing web site YouTube

Judge ordered a statewide, 24-hour suspension of Google and its video sharing web site YouTube

Authorities say the videos are slanderous towards a candidate running in a city’s election for mayor. The judge ordered the removal of the videos last week, but Google has refused to remove them and says it is appealing.

It says it is not responsible for the content posted on its site.

According to Brazilian media, the videos in question suggest Alcides Bernal – a mayoral candidate in the city of Campo Grande – is guilty of committing crimes.

Judge Flavio Peren, who sits at a regional electoral court in Mato Grosso do Sul state, ruled the videos violated local election laws.

But his order for the videos to be removed was ignored and on Monday he ordered the arrest of Mr Coelho.

“Google is appealing the decision that ordered the removal of the video on YouTube because, as a platform, Google is not responsible for the content posted to its site,” the company said through a spokesman in Brazil.

It has previously argued that the internet should be a space for voters freely to express their opinions about candidates for political office.

But Google’s responsibility for the content it disseminates has recently come into question in other contexts, such as the case of the anti-Islam video that sparked protests around the Muslim world, say correspondents.

 

Jun 15

IOF Taxes exempted from loans

Six percent IOF tax exempted from foreign loans

Dilma Rousseff

Dilma Rousseff

The Brazilian administration is rolling back curbs on foreign capital imposed in the past 19 months after the real posted the biggest loss of any major currency this year.

The government exempted foreign loans which matures in more than than two years from a 6 percent tax to help companies and banks rollover debt, said Finance Minister Guido Mantega. The financial transaction tax was before charged on loans taken abroad maturing as many as five years.

The tax was one of a series of measures taken to weaken the real and protect exporters from what Rousseff dubbed “a monetary tsunami” unleashed by rich nations seeking to devalue their currencies. Mantega said today that the “excessive liquidity” that led to capital controls ended with the worsening of the European debt crisis.

“Before the crisis worsened, it was easier to have access to long-term credit,” Mantega told reporters in Brasília. Brazilian banks and companies “need to rollover loans taken in the past, and this makes it easier.”

After being the best performing major currency in the first two months of the year, the real reversed course and plunged, raising concern the move could stoke inflation as imports became more expensive.

Growth Forecasts and GDP review

Economists covering the Brazilian economy reduced their 2012 economic growth forecast for a fifth straight week on June 8. The world’s biggest emerging market after China will expand 2.53 percent this year, less than the 2.73 percent growth rate posted last year, according to the median estimate in a central bank survey of about 100 analysts. GDP Preview: The IBC-BR recorded a high of 0.22% in April compared to March, which means that the economy is growing again. The above data was reviewed. In March, a drop was 0.61%, in February, up 0.56% and in January, down 0.38%.

New stimulus package

Government announced a further package – The government today announced a line of credit to the states, through BNDES, which can reach $ 20 billion. Expectations are that the new credit lines increase investment to stimulate the economy.

Jun 15

Public-sector pay in Brazil: Shaming the unshameable | The Economist

 

How the bureaucrats rob the taxpayers

How the bureaucrats rob the taxpayers

Public-sector pay in Brazil: Shaming the unshameable | The Economist

When his time as São Paulo’s mayor finishes at the end of the year, jokes Gilberto Kassab, he will look for work in the garages of the city’s municipal assembly. This month the city’s legislature published, for the first time, the salaries of some of its 2,000 employees. Half the 700 people named, paulistanos were surprised to learn, take home more each month than the assembly’s chairman, who earns 7,223 reais ($3,508) after tax.

Jun 15

House of Representatives approves purchase of agricultural land by foreigners

Agriculture Committee of the House of Representatives approves purchase of agricultural land by foreigners

The Agriculture Committee of the House of Representatives approved on Wednesday (13th of June 2012) the text of the bill that allows the acquisition of large plots of land by Brazilian companies controlled by foreigners. Today, the actual limit is up to 100 “fiscal units” (módulos ficais).

Fiscal unit is a unit of land measurement used in Brazil. It is expressed in hectares and is variable and is determined for each municipality, taking into account:

  • main type of farming in the municipality;
  • proceeds from the exploitation prevalent;
  • other farms in the municipality which, although not predominant, are expressive function of income or area used;
  • concept of family property.

Today, by law, foreign companies can buy up to 5 000 hectares, never exceeding 25% of the municipal area of the location of the farm. Citizens of the same foreign nationality can not together have more than 10% of the area of a municipality.

The text proposes that Brazilian companies with foreign capital are treated as domestic companies, no limit for land acquisition. The companies and foreign people, who currently limit the acquisition of 100 and 50 fiscal modules, respectively, can now acquire up to one quarter of the municipality where the farm.

The proposal also eliminates the authorization or license from the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) for acquisition by foreigners of rural property tax of up to four modules and rental tax of up to ten modules. The legislation established the current limit of three modules operating indefinitely.

Non-governmental organizations

The acquisition of land by non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) with foreign capital or headquarters outside of Brazil, which is not mentioned in current law, is prohibited in the new proposal. Upon approval, the report will be turned into a bill and distributed to other committees for analysis, then, be voted on in Congress.

Apr 13

Facebook Blasts into Top Position

Facebook Blasts into Top Position in Brazilian Social Networking Market Following Year of Tremendous Growth – comScore, Inc.

Facebook Brazil

Facebook Brazil

São Paulo, Brazil, January 17, 2012 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data showing that Facebook assumed the top place in the Brazilian social networking market following a year of exceptional growth. In December 2011, Facebook.com attracted 36.1 million visitors – representing an increase of 192 percent in the past twelve months – to surpass Orkut as the leading social networking destination in the market.

“Facebook’s rapid ascent in the Brazilian market has certainly been one of the most interesting stories to develop during the course of 2011,” said Alex Banks, comScore managing director for Brazil. “Brazil has always been a particularly social market and now owns the fifth largest social networking population in the world. But despite the cultural affinity for social media, Facebook adoption had traditionally lagged in the market. That has all changed in the past year, during which the site has tripled in audience size as engagement has grown sevenfold to assume the leadership position in the market.”

Facebook.com, Orkut and Windows Live Profile Lead Social Networking Rankings

Results from the recent comScore study It’s a Social World revealed that Brazil was one of just seven markets (including China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Poland and Russia) where Facebook did not lead the local social networking class according to October 2011 data.

In December 2011, however, Facebook.com finally secured the top place in Brazil’s social networking ranking with 36.1 million visitors age 6 and older accessing the site from a home or work computer, nearly tripling in audience size in the past year. Orkut, which fell to the #2 place with 34.4 million visitors, still managed to grow its audience 5 percent in the past year despite Facebook’s growing prominence. Windows Live Profile ranked third with 13.3 million visitors (up 13 percent), while Twitter.com ranked fourth with 12.5 million visitors (up 40 percent).

 

Apr 13

“Brazilians are ruining FACEBOOK …”

"CNN says that Mark is saddened by the behavior of Brazilian Facebook"

“CNN says that Mark is saddened by the behavior of the Brazilian at Facebook”

The news channel CNN said that the behavior of the Brazilians on the social network site Facebook is saddening Mark Zuckerberg. “On the one hand, Brazilians are growing Facebook, however they ruin everything,” he said.

Facebook engineers were considering allowing the inclusion of images in the format animated GIF-pictures (moving images), but Mark refused the idea because he has seen the behaviour of Brazilians at the social network site Orkut, which is loaded wioth animated gif’s.

According to Mark, if Facebook make room for the gifs, sharing among users will be equal to the Brazilian Orkut, full of colorful moving letters, loaded with messages of affection and love.

 

Closing Facebook in Brazil

On the possibility of closing the Facebook in Brazil, Mark drops . “I will not blame the Brazilians use the network, but will create a manual of behavior.”

When asked about Facebook is turning into a Orkut in Brazil, Mark said that there is no difference between social networks, the difference is Who uses. “Any service that has the Internet users in Brazil, in large proportions, it becomes a problem,” he said.

 

[important]

Source: G17.com.br

Note of the editor: This article has been published in Portuguese on the site G17.com.br. So, please don’t take this serious. It has been republished by many serious news websites in Brazil. However, for those of you intending to do business and want to learn about the culture you might be interested to read the various comments been made by the readers.

[/important]

 

Mar 27

Billionaire Batista in Talks to Sell $1 Billion EBX Stake

Billionaire Batista in Talks to Sell $1 Billion EBX Stake

via Billionaire Batista in Talks to Sell $1 Billion EBX Stake.

Eike Batista

Eike Batista in Veja magayine

as the billionaire continues his quest to become the world’s richest man.

“Imagine me getting my engine and adding another turbo charger,” Batista said in a telephone interview from Rio de Janeiro late yesterday. Earlier in the day he had announced a deal to sell 5.63 percent of his empire of commodity companies to Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co. for $2 billion.

The Brazilian mining and energy magnate has seen his net worth surge 17.6 percent this year to $26.5 billion, making him the 11th richest person on Earth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s wealthiest.

 

Oct 19

Brazilian Central Bank reduces benchmark interest rate to 11.5% per year

The Central Bank announced a reduction of 0.5 percentage points of base interest rate (Selic) from 12% to 11.5% per year. The announcement was made by Copom (Monetary Policy Committee) late on Wednesday October 19th.

With an eye on economic growth next year, the Central Bank decided to maintain the downward trend in interest rates – the benchmark for banks to fix the cost of borrowing for businesses and individuals in the country.

After surprising the financial market in the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting in August, the decision of the directors of the Central Bank was as expected.

Although most analysts still disagree with the diagnosis of BC for inflation next year, the expectation was further drop in interest rates. Especially after the warnings made by the president of the institution, Alexandre Tombini, that moderates in the Selic rate cuts are “consistent with the convergence of inflation to the target of 2012.”

Given the expectation of a BC steepest decline in world growth, reflecting the level of activity in Brazil, it was speculated that the magnitude of the cut could be higher, reaching a percentage point.

It was not what happened.

The decision of the Monetary Policy Committee, recently announced, indicates that the scenario with which the officers worked at the end of August has not changed much. Instead, only if confirmed. Therefore, maintaining the pace of decline in interest rates. Within the government, the assessment is that, from now on, the difference between the forecasts made by market analysts for inflation next year and officials should begin to reduce.

While the target for the CPI (price index reference to the government) in 2012 is 4.5%, the Central Bank has been working with the market with 4.7% and 5.61%. The official target is a range of two percentage points, meaning that the Central Bank has to calibrate the interest rate to ensure that inflation will reach a maximum of 6.5% next year.

For the government, although the market still reviewing their weekly estimates of inflation up to 2012, the rate of rise is stalling. As the unfolding international financial crisis means less economic growth in the world, it is believed that the projections should be even closer to the official figures.

For the Central Bank, the differences are natural-looking face of a “new and complex scenario” as lived in the world since the end of 2008.

While the Central Bank believes the world will live an extended period of low growth, which will help to reduce inflation in major economies, including Brazil, economists argue that the slowdown in activity level in Brazil will be stronger in the second half of this year.

In 2012, the pressure increases will continue, driven by real wage increases achieved this year and demand is still warm.

Oct 15

Following Japan, Korea disputes IPI increase at WTO

As expected more and more countries are lining up to challenge the unreasonable protective measure by the Brazilian government to increase the Tax on Industrialised Products (IPI). Last month, Brazil raised the so-called IPI by 30 percentage points for imported cars that aren’t made with at least 65% local content. Excluded are those from companies that produce locally or in Mercosul partners. Established carmakers such as Volkswagen, Fiat,General Motors Co. and Ford, which together account for about three-fourths of car sales, had complained about the influx of cars as Brazil’s currency strengthened and demand jumped.

Japan may be the first country to challenge at the World Trade Organization the Brazilian this increase in the IPI tax. In addition to Japan, South Korea also objected to the increase for imported cars decided by the Brazilian government. The two countries that are producers of automobiles, said that Brazil violates the agreement of trade-related investments as well as an article of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on national treatment of companies.

Both Korea and Japan has decided to challenge the measure of the Brazilian government in the Market Access Committee , which periodically examines new barriers raised by the countries. The report itself noted that the Japanese action could pave the way for other governments complain of Brazil, as it did. Japan will ask judges at the WTO to examine the measure. Though most Japanese car makers produce locally, exempting them from the tax, the country’s government is concerned that a similar measure could be repeated by other countries. The issue was raised with Brazil during a meeting of the WTO’s market access committee on Friday, said Atsushi Saito, Japan’s representative at the Geneva-based organization. In addition to Japan, members from South Korea, Australia, Europe and the U.S. also voiced their concerns, Saito said. When asked if Japan planned to file a formal complain with the WTO, Saito replied in an email that “If you understand that ‘formal complaint’ is part of a dispute settlement process, we don’t have any plans at this stage.”

More than 20% of cars sold this year are imported, up from just 5% in 2005, according to automakers association Anfavea. But the tax hike was challenged by car companies who are building or plan to build factories in the country and who say that because they won’t be able to meet the full local content requirements during the first few years of operations, they would cancel plans to bring production onshore.

Government willing to negotiate?

The government has since said it would negotiate with those companies to reach a compromise. This is also confirmed by China’s JAC Motors. JAC Brazil says it has finalized a deal to build a $500 million car factory in Brazil. JAC Brazil says in an emailed release the factory will be built in the northeastern state of Bahia. The plant should be ready by 2014.The automaker said in August it wanted to build a factory in Brazil. But those plans were questioned after Brazil hiked the import taxes on foreign cars, threatening the Chinese-made vehicles JAC ships to Brazil. JAC says in its Friday statement it hopes the decision to invest will convince officials to scrap that tax hike.

BMW considers building a factory in the country, but..

BMW asked Brazil’s Trade and Development Minister Fernando Pimentel to reevaluate the increase in the IPI tax as it considers building a factory in the country, O Estado de S. Paulo reported, citing Henning Dornbusch, chief executive officer of BMW’s Brazil unit. The Brazilian government’s decision to raise the tax on cars with less than 65 percent of their parts produced in Brazil may lead BMW to build its plant in China, India or Russia instead, according to the newspaper. The company will announce its decision by November, O Estado said. The Ministry of Trade and Development’s press office said Pimentel hasn’t made any commitment relating to BMW’s request because the decision must be made in conjunction with Finance Minister Guido Mantega, O Estado said.

 

Oct 09

Chinese Car Maker JAC to Build in Brazil – WSJ.com

Chinese Car Maker to Build in Brazil – WSJ.com.

By PAULO WINTERSTEIN

SÃO PAULO—Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co., the Chinese auto maker known as JAC, and its Brazilian partner said Friday that they decided to go ahead with plans to build a factory in Brazil on hopes that the government will modify a production tax.

SHC, the company that imports JAC automobiles into Brazil, said it would invest 80% of the 900 million Brazilian reals ($509 million) needed to build the factory, with JAC providing the rest. The factory will be built in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, with output set to begin in 2014.

Brazil’s market—the world’s fourth-largest by sales—has attracted heavy investment. Sales are expected to grow 5% this year, slowing from last year’s 12% expansion as the government raised interest rates earlier this year to rein in an overheated economy.

The JAC factory, with initial capacity of 100,000 vehicles, will be in the city of Camacari, an industrial area where Ford Motor Co. has a plant. JAC will assemble and paint the cars locally, with stamping and motor-production capacity set to be built later.

JAC began selling cars in Brazil in March of this year, and through September had sold 17,421 vehicles. With four models sold locally, JAC accounts for 0.9% of all cars sold this year, according to auto dealers association Fenabrave.

SHC and JAC will also build a research center to locally develop parts such as flex-fuel engines–the predominant kind in Brazil, which can run on gasoline, ethanol, or a mixture of the two–as well as a design center and a test track.

The factory plans had been announced in August by SHC president Sergio Habib, although a location had yet to be decided upon. A month later, however, Brazil said it was raising the a tax on autos by 30 percentage points—to a range of 37% to 55%, from 7% to 25%—exempting only cars that used at least 65% locally produced content.

Mr. Habib said last month that the tax would also hurt auto makers that in recent months had begun building factories in Brazil, such as South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. and China’s Chery Automobile Co. Mr. Habib later said he may cancel plans to build the factory because it was impossible for any company to begin production with 65% local content.

Brazil’s Trade Ministry said earlier this week that it was considering making the rules more flexible. News reports said the government may consider gradually increasing local content requirements for newly installed factories.

Also Friday, Mr. Habib said Friday that he is in talks with India’s Tata Motors to import the company’s cars. Tata officials weren’t available to comment.

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