Brazil’s outgoing Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said that Mercosur is ready to close a trade agreement with the European Union but it is being held up because the Europeans do not want to close a deal.
Brazil is prepared in the event China removes tariffs on U.S. soy, which had driven down prices for the oilseed in Chicago and driven up the premiums over U.S. prices paid for Brazilian beans, outgoing Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said on Friday.
Brazil’s environment and agriculture ministers on Wednesday criticized President-elect Jair Bolsonaro’s plans to merge their departments, saying it would hurt the country’s agenda on both fronts. Bolsonaro has pledged to roughly halve the number of existing ministries in an effort to reduce bureaucracy and government bloat. He also vowed to merge the planning, finance and industry ministries into one super ministry.
Brazil’s Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi tweeted on Friday that he had incorrectly stated a day earlier that a court had lifted an injunction on products containing the widely used herbicide glyphosate and that a ruling was still pending.
A Brazilian court has lifted an injunction that had suspended registration in the country of products containing the agrochemical glyphosate, Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said on Thursday on his official Twitter account.
A potential ban on the popular herbicide glyphosate in Brazil over concerns it may cause cancer in humans would be a “disaster” for the country’s agricultural industry, Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said on Thursday.
Brazil could benefit by offering access to its domestic markets in exchange for opening new foreign markets to its farm products, Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said on Monday, pointing to opportunities in the trade of pork and coffee.
Talks on new prices for truck freight in Brazil, following a nationwide truckers strike in May, have yet to be concluded and the lack of a deal is hurting goods transportation, Brazil’s Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said.
Brazil announced on Wednesday evening that it has earmarked up to 194.3 billion Reais or US$ 51.13bn in loans to promote large and medium-sized agricultural producers. At a ceremony in the capital Brasilia, President Michel Temer and his Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi unveiled the government's “2018-19 Agriculture and Cattle Ranching Program”, which devotes slightly more resources to the sector than last year's 190.25 billion Reais (US$ 50.06 billion).
The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has officially declared Brazil as a country free from Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) with vaccination. The decision for this occurred late May, in Paris. The decision took place after approval last year from the OIE’s scientific committee, which is constituted by 181 member states.