BRAZIL

On January 13, the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex in Portuguese) of the Ministry of Economy opened a public consultation on a draft ordinance regulating the Brazilian import licensing process. Interested parties will have 60 days – until March 14 – to submit comments related to the proposed regulatory act. Secex Circular No. 01 details the instructions for participation.

The regulatory proposal is divided into two main chapters. The first aims to regulate the use of the Foreign Trade Single Portal of the Foreign Trade Integral System (Siscomex in Portuguese) in the processing of import permits.

The second chapter of the proposal deals with the licensing of imports assigned to Secex, through the Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade Operations (Suext in Portuguese). According to the official statement, the basic objective is to ensure that import licensing by the Secretariat is “more rational, legally secure and publicized in its dealings with importers”.