A 2.9. What is Brazils current regime for the production and use of sugar-cane, sugar and ethanol?
Today, the production and marketing of sugar-cane, sugar and ethanol is no longer subject to State control. The prices paid to producers are determined by the markets. Sugar and ethanol imports and exports are free, at the risk and expense of business deals. There are no tariff barriers to exports and imports. Even hydrous ethanol prices at fuel stations ceased to require support in relation to those of automotive gasoline in 1999 as well. The competitiveness of sugar and ethanol in Brazil does not result from governmental action, but from the exceptionally favorable production, organization and technological conditions in which the market develops. That translates to structural competitiveness of products that are directly exposed to international competition, whether by competing in the world market or in a domestic market where the only protective tool is the import tax, which for sugar corresponds to the Common External Tariff (TEC) for the Mercosur countries (16 percent), and does
