Government aims to keep trade surplus at $20 billion

With some market analysts forecasting a 2011 trade surplus of only $8 billion, minister of Finance, Guido Mantega, says that his team will seek to end the year with a surplus equal to this year’s: $20 billion, even though it was the lowest trade surplus in eight years.

Mantega pointed out that he had a series of tools that could be used: export stimulus measures and policies to improve competitivity, for example. He added that looser rules on tax credit returns to exporters, which recently went into effect, will boost foreign trade and avoid the problem of Brazilian exporters exporting taxes.