Brazilian president Michel Temer reaffirmed on Tuesday the nation’s commitment to protect the local steel industry, he said during the opening ceremony of Brazil’s Steel Congress, held from August 21-22 in Sao Paulo.
“I do understand such a concern over protectionism and reaffirm we need to protect our [steel industry],” he said.
Temer said he recognized the challenges the local steel industry has faced in the past few years, after a crisis hit the sector and halted blast furnaces, reducing output due to a sluggish domestic demand.
“We did revert such a scenario,” Temer said, adding Brazilian steel industry has started to rebound.
“Today we can affirm such a recovery is solid and came to stay. The (local steel) sector will continue growing. I know there are many challenges. But we’ve worked in many areas, including commercial defense,” he said.
Temer said the quota deal Brazil reached with the US under Section 232 “wasn’t positive” for the country, however, “we managed to reduce tariffs that would highly harm the industry.”
“Brazil’s steel industry has shown resistance in its worst crisis,” Temer said.
Marcos Jorge de Lima, Brazilian minister of industry, foreign trade and services (MDIC) said Brazil has always fought for fair trade.
“Brazil has about 32 commercial defense measures in place [including AD, CVD and other instruments],” he said, adding all measures were a result of needed actions to avoid harm to the local industries.
“In Brazil, defense is an equilibrium measure used to correct distortions and avoid unfair trade. We will be always in the side of the private sector, building the country we want for the future,” he said.