Brazilian beef exporters expect shipments to grow 10% in 2018 after rising an estimated 9% this year despite corruption and food safety scandals that temporarily closed off major markets. Trade group Abiec on Thursday said Brazil, the world’s largest beef exporter, would likely sell 1.68 million tons of beef abroad next year, up from 1.53 million tons in 2017. Revenue is expected to rise about 11% to US$6.9 billion in 2018, after a 13% rise this year to US$6.2 billion.
Brazil’s government published a decree laying out procedures importers will have to follow to be able to buy and unload Russian wheat in Brazil, a step aimed at improving trade ties with Moscow. The decree, which takes effect immediately, outlines the documents importers will have to submit to bring Russian wheat to be processed in Brazil, which had not been previously allowed.
The lower house of Brazil’s Congress will delay a vote on a bill trimming social security benefits until Feb. 19, Speaker Rodrigo Maia said on Thursday, pushing a decision on the cornerstone of President Michel Temer’s fiscal reforms into an election year.
Volkswagen said on Thursday that a historian commissioned by the carmaker found that some of the security staff at Volkswagen do Brasil had cooperated with the country’s former military regime.
Brazil will join the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic, Minusca, the United Nations has announced. This is an important decision since Brasilia looks to maintain a high profile in UN peace operations and show its increased interest in Africa.
Brazilian police raided the offices and homes of two members of Congress on Wednesday in the country’s latest corruption probe as the government makes a last-ditch effort to vote on an overhaul of the national pension system.
The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Brazil signed the Procedural Agreement for the first deployment of an Electoral Observation Mission to Brazil.
Mexican national oil company Pemex blamed the cancellation of a potentially lucrative deepwater Gulf of Mexico project on weak investor appetite due to competition from recent auctions in Brazil and low oil prices. Mexico’s oil regulator canceled a tender to pick an equity partner for Pemex’s Nobilis-Maximino project, as company interest was not as robust as expected.
Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski acknowledged that he worked as a financial adviser for an irrigation project owned by the Brazilian builder Odebrecht, contradicting his previous denials of having any links to the company. Odebrecht is at the center of Latin America’s biggest graft scandal and has admitted to paying about US$ 30 million in bribes to secure contracts in Peru over a decade.
The centrist Brazilian Social Democracy Party, PSDB, elected four-time Sao Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin as its leader on Saturday, making him its most likely presidential nominee in next year’s elections. Alckmin threw the party’s weight behind a social security overhaul that is currently before Congress and would cut generous pensions for public-sector employees.