Good morning! Today, retailers want the Brazilian government to tackle foreign marketplaces. Purifying São Paulo’s Pinheiros river, and investigations into golden handshakes for education funding.
Brazilian retailers bid to curtail cross-border shopping
A group of Brazilian retail executives asked the government to restrict consumer purchases from online Chinese marketplaces such as AliExpress or Shopee. Led by Luciano Hang — a close ally to President Jair Bolsonaro — they also complained about Argentina’s Mercado Libre, and Brazil’s OLX.
What they are saying. The group claims that cross-border sales represent unfair competition as platforms can bypass regular import taxes and sell products that do not necessarily respect Brazilian quality control standards.
- The retailer group wants consumers to pay taxes at the moment of the purchase, to make it harder for buyers to dodge levies.
- Toy producers, as well as electronics and textile companies, are similarly interested in stricter regulations on cross-border shopping.
Moves. IDV, a lobby for retailers, contracted two high-profile law firms last month to compile a list of possible transgressions embedded in cross-border shopping focusing on a range of areas — competition, taxation, consumer relations, internet regulations, and criminal law.
Why it matters. The pandemic stimulated an e-commerce surge all...