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.
A vast majority of Brazilians, 75%, are convinced that president-elect Jair Bolsonaro is “on the right track”, and over 50% are confident of his economic plan or promises. Likewise 64% believe that 2019 is going to be a “very good year”, while “average” for 18% and “terribly bad” for 14%.
The Brazilian central bank on Wednesday held interest rates at an all-time low, as widely expected, and hinted that it will hold off from raising them for longer than expected. The bank’s nine-member monetary policy committee, Copom, kept the benchmark Selic rate at 6.50 percent for a sixth straight meeting.
Brazil’s future environment minister under President-elect Jair Bolsonaro said that the country should stay in the Paris Agreement on climate change, but the world must also respect its autonomy to set its environmental policies.
The Arab League has told Brazil's right-wing President-elect Jair Bolsonaro that moving Brazil's embassy in Israel to Jerusalem would be a setback for relations with Arab countries. Such a move by Bolsonaro, who takes office on January first, would be a sharp shift in Brazilian foreign policy, which has traditionally backed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A Brazilian federal court has overturned a provisional injunction that blocked a proposed tie-up between plane makers Embraer and Boeing, Embraer said on Monday in a securities filing. Brazil's Embraer announced in July its intention to sell 80% of its commercial aviation business to Chicago-based Boeing for US$ 3.8 billion. Embraer has said the deal is crucial for its survival.
Mercosur and the European Union will be holding a round of technical talks this week in Montevideo, starting on Monday, with the purpose of building a strong consensus that could anticipate an agreement sometime next year.
Brazil's former president, Lula da Silva, says he was jailed to prevent him from winning the 2018 presidential election which saw far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro elected. In an exclusive interview with the BBC via letters from his cell, Lula said Judge Sergio Moro “did politics and not justice” when he sentenced him.
Brazil's right-wing President-elect Jair Bolsonaro named a pro-life evangelical pastor to head a new ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights that will also take over the agency looking after the country's 850,000 indigenous people. Damares Alves, a lawyer, preacher and congressional aide, is a staunch opponent of legalizing abortion, which is allowed only in cases of rape, anencephaly or when the mother's life is in danger.
Twelve people including 6 hostages were killed on Friday in a shootout between police and bank robbers attempting to blow up ATMs at 2 banks in a small town in northeastern Brazil, authorities said.