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Brazil retaliates against United States

By Johanna Gibson, David Pearce, Jeremy Phillips and Ilanah Simon.

Brazil has outlined the details of its retaliation against the United States, following the latter's refusal to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling that it had wrongly subsidised its local cotton production, preventing Brazil from exporting its own cotton there. According to Reuters tonight, the estimated annual impact of the retaliation is $591 million, estimates Brazil's foreign ministry. The news item adds:

"Brazil is expected to publish by March 23 a separate list worth an additional $238 million in annual cross-retaliation penalties. That list would be subject to public hearings for 20 days and focus on intellectual property rights and services, ministry officials said.

It could break patents and copyrights in the pharmaceutical or music industries, analysts said, potentially making U.S. industries more susceptible to farm disputes. "That will impact much more than goods -- it could set an important precedent and harm the United States in other cases," said Haroldo Cunha, head of the Brazilian cotton growers assocation Abrapa. ...

The WTO has previously granted two other countries the right to cross-retaliate in trade disputes, but Brazil would be the first nation ever to apply it".

The IPKat understands that more details will be posted soon on the IP Tango specialist intellectual property website by leading Brazilian practitioner and blogger José Carlos Vaz e Dias.

Full post as published by IPKat on March 08, 2010 (boomark / email).