Brazil
The Planalto Palace is trying to secure an increase in the amount of tariff-free sugar it can sell to the United States. According to Reuters, there have been high-level contacts involving the vice-president and the head of Itamaraty for Brazil, while the Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer have been present for the United States. The increase sought by Brasilia is a move to mitigate the potential application of tariffs on Brazilian ethanol by the Trump administration, a latent threat since last month. “The U.S. tariff on ethanol is a mere 2.5%, yet Brazil charges U.S. ethanol exports an 18% tariff. As a result, in 2024, the U.S. imported over $200 million in ethanol from Brazil while exporting only $52 million in ethanol to Brazil,” the White House argued in February.
Brazil's Energy and Mining Minister Alexandre Silveira dismissed Washington's narrative as “unreasonable” as long as it did not encourage the export of more Brazilian sugar to the United States. The British news agency reports that Brazil produced 35 billion liters of ethanol last year, exported less than 1% to the United States—in total it exported only 6% worldwide—, while 57% of its imports volume for the mainly corn-based product (some 110 million liters) came from its second largest trading partner. Brazil's tariff-free sugar quota in the U.S. market is set at 147,000 metric tons, but the volume exported in 2024 exceeded this benchmark by a wide margin. So, more than 950,000 metric tons entered the United States with an associated tariff of $360-per-tonne, which implies a tax of over 80%, according to Brazilian authorities.
“For a long time now... Brazil has not been able to export sugar to the United States, except in small quotas, because their tariffs make exportation unfeasible,” a Brazilian sugar- and ethanol-focused lobby head told Reuters. Last year, Latin America's leading economy set out to boost its sugar production to take advantage of rising prices for the critical commodity while trying to rely more on corn to produce ethanol, widely used as a transport fuel. The production of ethanol from corn and sugarcane is a highly controversial issue because of its impact on competition for productive lands and, above all—for me—because of the ethical conflict involved in processing these products for purposes other than feeding humans in a hungry world, if one has responsibility for their fate.
#Brazil's annual #corn #ethanol production is forecast to almost double to around 16 billion liters by 2032, investment bank Citi said in a research note published on Tuesday, citing rapid expansion of the industry.https://t.co/VbiOD3miS7
March 12, 2025— FarmPolicy (@FarmPolicy)
Rebellion in the Caribbean
In a consistent, united, and firm standing, Caribbean countries are reacting to the recent measure adopted by the State Department that attempts to discourage the employment of Cuban medical personnel in their health systems. The U.S. portrays this dynamic as “slave labor” or “modern slavery”, falsely arguing that Cuba forces its doctors to participate in these so-called “medical missions”. A real, but ultimately flawed, argument is that the Cuban government keeps most of the income associated with each contract for itself. However, the doctors get a strong economic boost, allowing them to improve the reproduction of material life. These agreements with Caribbean, Latin American, and African countries constituted a secure and representative source of foreign currency, or even Venezuelan oil. The Trump administration's measure punishes those who manage these agreements with Cuba by cancelling their visas, but the response is being extraordinarily exemplary.
The foreign ministers of 15 nations benefiting from Cuban medical assistance met in the U.S. capital with Mauricio Claver-Carone—a Cuban-origin hawk specialist in sanctioning the Island—to defend their agreements in this matter with Cuba. “The United States is a strategic partner for Caricom, but this very important issue should be dealt with at the level of heads of government,” said the Guyanese foreign minister. “I would rather lose my visa than see 60 poor, hard-working people die,” said the prime minister of St. Vincent, referring to the critical dialysis treatment that Cuban doctors provide to 60 patients in his country. "I have just returned from California, and if I never go back there in my life, I will make sure that the sovereignty of Trinidad and Tobago is known to its people and respected by all,” said the Trinidadian Prime Minister in statements reported by a local newspaper. “We rely heavily on health specialists that we have obtained from India, the Philippines and mainly Cuba over the decades.”
SourceArgentina
There is a lot of politics here 👇 if you want.
Argentina began a long-awaited trial of the medical team for soccer star Diego Maradona, who died in 2020 in a case that has riled emotions in the South American country where the World Cup winner is revered https://t.co/agCRAJ2HKc pic.twitter.com/RrfHfspQch
March 11, 2025— Reuters (@Reuters)
