Brazil sends initial memorandum to continue joining the OECD

The Federal Government announced, this Thursday (6), the forwarding of the “Initial Memorandum” to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The statement was made by the Minister of the Civil House, Ciro Nogueira, at an event at Palácio do Planalto. The delivery was foreseen in the Roadmap for Accession of Brazil to the Organization.

In addition to Nogueira, the following were present: Paulo Guedes (Economy); Carlos França (Foreign Affairs); and Luiz Eduardo Ramos (General Secretary).

The Memorandum assesses the degree of alignment of the candidate country’s national legislation, policies and practices with the standards set by the OECD in 32 different areas ─ including trade, investment, digital economy, health, education, environment, competition, tourism, nuclear energy. , among others.

“The approach of the OECD is not based on ideology or on helping political partners, what we want is the improvement of Brazilian policies, structural reforms and the creation of more opportunities for our people”, said the Minister of the Civil House.

According to the official communiqué of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the assessment resulted from intense work by the competent areas of the government and was carried out individually for each of the 230 normative instruments defined by the Organization for the accession process of Brazil.

“There are 230 definers, requirements, so that Brazil can have access. Brazil has already filled 108, has 45 under approval and 77 are missing, which would be the new ones. The important thing is the moment, it is as if it were a portal that opens at the right time for Brazil to move forward”, said the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes.

Minister Carlos França also celebrated and assessed that, when the entry is completed, Brazil will have access “to the best international practices”.

“I think this is very important because the strengthening of these relationships with the OECD will help us to deal with our bottlenecks and our inefficiencies. We will have access to the best international practices”.

The delivery of the document precedes the technical discussions within the scope of the 26 committees and working groups designated by the OECD to examine the information submitted by Brazil and all that will still be provided during the negotiation.

The Brazil-OECD Council understands that convergence to OECD standards is part of the strategy to strengthen Brazil’s international insertion, improve our public policies and encourage structural reforms.

“They will evaluate and conclude that it is consistent with our work, we are on the right track, so we must have access to the OECD. This process would take 2, 3 or 4 years, but we believe that this time will be substantially shortened. Brazil has never been so respected abroad”, added Guedes.