Brussels, 07/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - In a note to Committee 133 on 1 June, the Commission expressed concern about the possible rise in Brazilian customs tariffs for imported clothing/textiles, footwear and furniture. Based on a public declaration made in March this year by the former Brazilian trade minister, Luiz Fernando Furlan, the Commission fears possible rises of up to 18, 20 and 35% respectively for each of the tariff sectors cited in order to protect these sectors, severely affected by imports to Brazil of products originating in Asia, especially China. “If this measure is confirmed and implemented, this would constitute a serious drawback for our market access efforts and eventually for EU exports and would cause strong reactions, particularly from the textiles and clothing sector in the EU”, the note stresses. At multilateral level, the Commission also stresses the implication of such measures on the talks underway on manufactured products (NAMA) in the context of the Doha talks. “Rising tariffs in the middle of NAMA negotiations is going to have an impact on the type of modalities that we can accept, both flexibilities and coefficients”, it explains. At bilateral level, it stresses that such measures are a problem in talks for an EU/Mercosur free trade agreement, since tariffs applied are at the basis of the bilateral negotiation. Finally, still at the bilateral level, these measures would “constitute clear violation” of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) of November 2002, between the Union and Brazil on textiles, if Brasilia puts up its customs tariffs on imports of textiles over and above the rates agreed in the MoU, the Commission went on to say. It points out that, with this agreement, Brazil has undertaken to bilaterally consolidate its duties applied to textiles and clothing (the maximum rate applied does not exceed 20%). Pending clarification from Brasilia, the Commission states, however, that, before being implemented, the Brazilian proposal should be endorsed by Mercosur partners. It also specifies that increases should remain within the limits of the consolidated WTO tariffs for the countries of the South-American bloc. After technical discussions, a political decision is expected at the Mercosur summit in July this year. Although Argentina has no problem with accepting this proposal, Paraguay and Uruguay on the other hand are expected to be more reticent, the Commission says, stressing that no formal decision has been taken at this stage. (eh)