Brazil's federal government published in Monday's (24) edition of the Diário Oficial da União, the country's official gazette, a resolution approving R$ 13.5 billion in financing lines for companies hurt by the United States' tariff hike on Brazilian products and by international conflicts. According to G1, the allocation was approved by the Interministerial Council of the Sovereign Brazil Plan (Plano Brasil Soberano), a package of measures announced by the executive branch in July in response to the trade dispute with Washington.
The largest share, R$ 5 billion, will go to exporters and supply chains hit by the higher tariff rates applied by the U.S. government. Another R$ 3.5 billion is earmarked for companies and suppliers that sell to Persian Gulf countries, to cushion the economic fallout from the Middle East conflict.
The remaining R$ 5 billion targets areas the government considers strategic. According to InfoMoney, R$ 2 billion will finance industrial and technological projects involving minerals, covering extraction stages linked to processing, refining or transformation of the raw material. A further R$ 2 billion will fund fertilizer production or intermediate inputs for the sector, and R$ 1 billion will serve industrial sectors considered important for Brazil's trade balance.
Who can apply
Exporting companies, cooperatives and associations of industrial goods can tap the credit lines, as can their suppliers. The resolution also covers producers and exporters of agriculture, livestock and fishing, plus firms tied to mineral exports; InfoMoney reports that aquaculture and planted forests are also included. The funds may be used to buy machinery and equipment, reinforce working capital, expand productive capacity and develop technological innovation.
Oversight of the operations will fall to BNDES, the state-owned national development bank. The bank must send monthly reports to the Interministerial Council detailing approved proposals, signed contracts and amounts actually disbursed. The council may revise the distribution of funds among the credit lines depending on how quickly the money is used and on the priorities set by the government.