[Ip-health] Dow Jones: Brazil Formalizes Retaliation Guidelines Against US Cotton

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

     * FEBRUARY 12, 2010, 7:20 A.M. ET

Brazil Formalizes Retaliation Guidelines Against US Cotton

  BRASILIA (Dow Jones)--Brazil's government Thursday formalized
guidelines for an $830 million retaliation against U.S. cotton
subsidies granted by a World Trade Organization ruling last year.

According to a decree published in the country's federal register, the
government, among possible retaliatory measures, gave authorization
for suspension or limitation of intellectual property rights locally
to imports from the U.S., and temporary blockage of royalty
remittances related to intellectual property.

Brazil's trade ministry last week published a list of U.S. goods
totaling $560 million that could be subject to direct import
retaliations. The remaining $270 million in WTO authorized sanctions,
it said, would likely come through restrictions of intellectual
property rights.

Government authorities Thursday did not say specifically which
products would be chosen to undergo retaliation. Local officials,
however, have suggested previously that they could target products in
the medical and pharmaceutical sectors.

The WTO trade ruling was the result of a case filed in 2002 against an
alleged $12 billion in illegal subsidies offered by the U.S. to its
cotton industry between 1999 and 2002. According to U.S. officials,
Brazil initially sought sanctions worth up to $4 billion.

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997