Who is interested in following the seminar “Agriculture, Climate Change and Trade: Expectations on the Copenhagen Talks” can access the link below:

www.fiesp.com.br/online

ICONE's senior researcher, Saulo Nogueira, took part in Itamaraty's (Min. of Foreign Relations) meeting in preparation for the UNFCCC's COP-15 Conference in Copenhagen, together with around 50 specialists from government, private sector and NGO's.

André Nassar, ICONE’s General Dicetor, participated on EPA’s (Environmental Protection Agency) public hearing that held for the proposed rule ``Regulation of Fuels and Fuel Additives: Changes to Renewable Fuel Standard Program'' (the proposed rule is hereinafter referred to as ``RFS2''), which will be published separately in the Federal Register. The hearing occurred in Washington, DC on June 9, 2009.

In a separate notice of proposed rulemaking, EPA is proposing a regulation to implement changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard program as mandated by the Clean Air Act (as amended by Sections 201, 202, and 210 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007). The revised statutory requirements specify the volumes of cellulosic biofuel, biomass-based diesel, advanced biofuel, and total renewable fuel that must be used in transportation fuel each year, with the volumes increasing over time.

The rule proposes regulations designed to ensure that refiners, blenders, and importers of gasoline and diesel would use enough renewable fuel each year so that the four volume requirements of the Energy Independence and Security Act would be met with renewable fuels that also meet the required lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions performance standards. The RFS2 proposed rule describes the standards that would apply to these parties and the renewable fuels that would qualify for compliance, and the proposed regulations make a number of changes to the current Renewable Fuel Standard program while retaining many elements of the compliance and trading system already in place.

Sixty representatives of companies, institutes, universities, embassies, among other organizations, participated actively of the event, which official website is: http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-AIR/2009/May/Day-20/a11644.htm.

Check, below, André Nassar's testimony in the event.

BOOK: Trade and International Negotiations for Journalists

ICONE and the Brazilian Center of International Relationships (CEBRI) launch the bilingual book ‘Trade and International Negotiations for Journalists’, inspired in the content of the course for press professionals promoted annually by ICONE.

The book is a consultation source for all those that want to understand better the trade themes and world negotiations. Acronyms as WTO, MERCOSUL, UNCTAD, GATT, BIRD, RTAs, IED, IDB, Bric and IMF are presented in a didactic way and, at the same time, in a practical context, showing how international organizations operate, explaining in wich way agreements are firmed and how commercial movements occurs.

Written by professionals with strong performance in the market, each chapter approaches a theme of the vast trade universe, collaborating for a deepened understanding of the theme.

Rodrigo Lima, ICONE's General Manager will take part of the Expert Meeting on "Climate Change - the Role of Food and Agricultural Trade" sponsored by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) an the International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council (IPC) at the margin of the 14^th Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention held in Poznan  on December 9^th. He will talk about How to balance the application of the common but differentiated responsibilities principle in a world of carbon differentiation products?

André Nassar, Director of ICONE, was invited as a speaker at the conference "Brazil as an Economic Superpower: Managing the Challenges of Globalization", organized by the Brookings Global Economy and Development, which will take place on April 29^th in Washington, DC.

More information about the conference, clique aqui

The Internacional Food & Agriculture Policy Council (IPC) will hold its 41^st Annual Meeting in Bogor, Indonesia on 10^th and 11^th May. Themes to be discussed include: WTO Doha Round, trade and the environment, technical standards, biofuels and sustainability.

On May 12, 2008, IPC will examine this issue and also incorporate the ecological questions surrounded food production and biofuels into the debate at its 41st international seminar, to be held in Bogor, Indonesia. The Seminar on the 12^th "Food, Fuel and Forests" will focus on climate change, agriculture and trade. Andre Nassar, Director General of ICONE, will make a presentation in the panel on sustainability standards, covering the issues in the ethanol sector.

ICONE will organize a panel on biofuels with presentations of the analysis papers done by the Asian Latina American Research Network (ALARN), covering the sector policies, production and sustainability issues.

To learn more about the ALARN network, click here.

On 28^th of April, as part of a series of seminars based on biofuels production, André Nassar, Director of ICONE, will present the initial findings of a study on sugarcane expansion and land use.  The forum will be held in Washington, and it is being organized by the Brazilian Institute, at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

For more information, click here

André Nassar, ICONE's Director General, will do the Presentation "Prospects for Latin American trade in the Asia Pacific region" in the Outlook 2008 - Australia's premier commodity forecasting conference.

ICONE together with ICTSD (International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development) organized a Dialogue on Tropical Products, Trade, Natural Resources Management and Poverty in Salvador on 3-5 December, 2007. The participants were made up of experts on tropical products and agricultural trade who discussed the current status of the negotiations on tropical products and possible areas of convergence between the negotiating countries in the WTO. Other areas discussed were biofuel production based on tropical products, supply and value-chain and sustainable agriculture.

Click here to see the agenda of the event, the participants list and the studies relating to this topic.

Below is the future research agenda, which summarizes the main discussions of the event.

Agricultural experts from nine countries in Asia and Latin America presented the situations of their sectors in the First International Seminar of the Asia Latin-America Agri-Food Research Network (ALARN) held in Sao Paulo on 29^th of August. The presentations on China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Argentina, Brazil and Chile were based on the country papers written as part of the project organized by ICONE and the Hewlett Foundation.

A presentation on a cross-paper was made showing the differences and similarities of the nine countries and the current trends of the agricultural production and food demand. Among the overall observations made are:

• Agricultural production grew significantly after the economic liberalization of the 1990s, mostly through higher efficiency of production through better technological investments.
• There will be some restrictive factors that may limit agricultural production growth in the future, mainly due to water limits, poor infrastructure, size limitations for landholdings.
• Population and economic growth will increase demand for foods, especially high-value foods. Since most of the population have low income, the potential for growth in food demand as income grows is large.
• The six Asian countries of the ALARN are going through an agroindustrialization process. This implies changes to the structure and integration of the sector, along with the distribution and retail system which cause changes in the whole production chain.
• Although there are signs of potential for increse in trade between the regions, protectionist policies remain in place in some of the countries.

To view the presentations, click here.

To know more about the project ICONE-Hewlett Foundation, click here.

André Nassar, the acting president of ICONE, is the co-author of "Agricultural Trade Liberalization and the Least Developed Countries", edited by Niek Koning and Per Pinstrup-Andersen. Nassar wrote the chapter "Trade liberalization in cotton and sugar: impacts on developing countries."

To order the book click here.

 ICONE and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation will hold the First International Seminar of the Asia Latin-America Agri-food Research Network (ALARN),on August 29 in São Paulo.

Specialists from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Philippines, Argentina, Brazil and Chile will present their papers analyzing the main characteristics of the agricultural and agri-food sectors of their countries.

The papers will highlight the differences between the countries and regions and identify the policies that brought problems to the sector and those that resulted in a more efficiently structured and productive sector. These findings may be used by specialists and the governments of the countries involved to learn from the experience of other developing countries. The exchange of information will be beneficial to all members, as well as to their countries experts, students and government officials working on agriculture. Considering that the members of the network are experts with a certain degree of influence in national policy-making, the findings of the research may evolve into recommendations to be forwarded to their countries' ministry of agriculture.

The papers authors are: Tian Wei-Ming (China); Fatimah Arshad (Malasya); Bustanul Arifin (Indonesia); Nipon Poapongsakorn (Thailand); Ashok Gulati (India); Leonardo Gonzáles (Phillipines); Marcelo Regúnega (Argentina); Fábio Chaddad, Mariel Rodriguez e Saulo Nogueira (Brazil) and Alberto Valdés (Chile).

In its first ever Review of Agricultural Policies in Brazil the OECD says that if the US, the European Union and other OECD countries were to cut import tariffs and export subsidies on agricultural products, farmers in Brazil would gain from the resulting rise in international prices, with the larger commercial producers benefiting most. The report estimates that a 50% cut in tariffs and export subsidies globally, together with a 50% reduction in domestic support to agriculture in OECD countries would benefit the Brazilian economy - through higher incomes for consumers and producers - by some 1.7 billion US dollars, the equivalent of around 0.3% of GDP.

The OECD's review of Brazilian agriculture is part of on going co-operation programme launched in 1999, which has already resulted in a number of other studies, including reviews of the Brazilian economy, competition policy, tax reform and insurance and private pension funds.

ICONE, among many other Brazilian specialists, contributed to the OECD report.

To receive a copy of the report, journalists are invited to contact Nicole Le Vourch, OECD Media Relations Division (tel: + 33 1 4524-8088).

ICONE, Economic Research Foundation of the University of São Paulo (FIPE) and United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) will hold the seminar Comparative Trade Policy: Organizational Models and Performance. The seminar takes place on August 7 in São Paulo.

To register for the seminar, please write to cursos@fipe.org.br

Click here to see the program.

The International Trade Centre held a round table on agriculture on May 29 in Geneva. André Nassar, from ICONE, presented the topics Export Competition (impact on exports of products facilitated by export subsidies and new opportunities anticipated) and Market Access (new opportunities for trade). Crawford Falconer, chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, presented the State of Play of WTO Negotiations.

ICONE`s researcher Rodrigo Lima takes part in the Brazilian delegation to the 34^th Regular Meeting of the Committee on Sanitary and Phytossanitary Measures. Special attention will be given to the Regionalization Principle countries experiences. The meeting will take place on January 30-31 and February 1-2 in Geneva.

The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), an autonomous fund administered by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), approved US$ 3,2 million grant to support agricultural trade liberalization in Mercosur countries. The resources will enable the Rural Associations of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay and the Institute for International Trade Negotiations (ICONE) to build trade negotiating capacity of the private agricultural sector in Mercosur.

The Project will support at least 14 sector associations and more than 1,750 representatives of enterprises interested in participating and will offer training seminars to opinion leaders and decision-makers. It will create links among related web pages and will inform more than one million agricultural producers of the project's benefits.