Panorama 52

Bulletin of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Israel – Brazil

P.O. Box 20425 Tel-Aviv 61203 ISRAEL

http://www.israel-brazil.org/en

E-mail: contact@israel-brazil.org

Tel: (*) 972-3-6296048

 

# 52 – MARCH 2010

BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES ACTIVATION OF MERCOSUL FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN BRAZIL AND ISRAEL

Brazilian President, H.E. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced that he signed the final approval for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Brazil and Israel, and on April 04 the Agreement will become active. This announcement was made before Israel President H.E. Shimon Peres, when both addressed over 300 participants in the Seminar “Brazil-Israel: Free Trade and New Business Opportunities”. This FTA was the first ever signed between the Mercosul block and a country outside South America.

The Seminar, whose Master of Ceremonies was Dr. Shmuel Yerushalmi, Chairman of the Israel-Brazil Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ISBRACAM), took place on March 15 at the King David Hotel, Jerusalem, on the occasion of President Lula’s official visit to Israel. The Opening Session consisted of greetings by Minister of Development, Industry and International Trade of Brazil, H.E. Miguel Jorge, Minister Norton de Andrade Mello Rapesta, Head of Trade & Investment Promotion, Ministry of External Relations of Brazil, Ambassador Ms. Irit Ben Abba, Deputy Director-General for Economic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor of Israel, H.E. Binyamin Ben-Eliezer.

The Seminar featured lectures on Economic Panorama of Brazil and Israel, Free Trade Benefits and Opportunities, panels on Energy/Biofuels, Infrastructure/Services, and Telecom, followed by 3 business networking sessions: Home Land Security/Aerospace, Communication and Healthcare, and Infrastructure, Agrotechnology and Cleantech.

The lectures were held by Mr. Rafi Brender, Deputy-Director of Foreign Trade Administration, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor of Israel, Mr. Alcantaro Corrêa, President of the Industry Federation of Santa Catarina, Mr. Felipe Hees, Head of Extra-Regional Negotiations Department Mercosul I, of the Ministry of External Relations of Brazil, Mr. Roy Nir, Head of the Economic Office of Israel in Brazil, Mr. Carlos Cavalcanti, Head of the Energy Department of the Federation of Industries of the State of S.Paulo, Mr. Lucien Bronicki, Chairman of ORMAT Energy, Israel, Mr. Flavio Machado, Director of International Relations of the Brazilian Association for the Heavy Industry Development (ABDID), Mr.Leo Gleser, President of International Security & Defence Systems Ltd.(ISDS), Mr. Ruben Parz, Director of Athena Systems Integration for Home Land Security (MER Group), Mr. Mariano de Beer, CEO of Telefonica Brasil, and Mr. Elisha Yanay, President of Motorola Israel and Senior Vice President of Motorola Inc.,USA.

Brazilian Minister of External Relations, H.E. Celso Amorim, State of Bahia’s Governor, H.E. Jacques Wagner, Brazilian Ambassador, H.E. Pedro Motta Pinto Coelho, Israel Ambassador to Brazil, H.E. Giora Becher, and Brazilian and Israeli senior authorities were present at the Seminar, as well a large delegation of Brazilian and Israeli business people.

 

Two important Agreements were signed during the Seminar:

JOINT UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE MINISTRY OF DEVELOPMENT, INDUSTRY AND FOREIGN TRADE OF THE FEDERATIVE REPUBLIC OF BRAZIL AND THE MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY, TRADE AND LABOR OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL, signed by Ministers Miguel Jorge and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, followed by words of Mr. Paulo Skaf, President of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (FIESP). Mr.Skaf announced also that a working group was formed between Brazil and Israel, in order to advance and implement the Mercosul Agreement.

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE INDUSTRIY FEDERATION OF THE STATE OF SANTA CATARINA (FIESC) AND THE MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION OF ISRAEL (MAI) , signed by Mr. Alcantaro Corrêa, President of FIESC and Mr. Shraga Brosh, President of MAI, who also addressed the participants stressing the importance of the agreement.

Early in the morning, a breakfast meeting took place between Minister Miguel Jorge and Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, with the participation of Brazilian Ambassador Pedro Motta Pinto Coelho, senior officers and Dr. Shmuel Yerushalmi, Chairman of the Israel-Brazil Chamber of Commerce and Industry. At the occasion Minister Miguel Jorge declared that, following the important visit to Israel of Secretary Barral, of Foreign Trade Department of his Ministry, who participated and lectured on March 04 at the “2010 Conference of the Chief Scientist of Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor”, steps started to be made in order to implement the R&D Bi-lateral Agreement between the 2 countries.

 

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY ISRAEL – BRAZIL

Honorary President: Tzvi Chazan

Honorary Fellows: Prof. Yehuda Kahane

Adv. Eli Chenchinski

Chairman: Dr. Shmuel Yerushalmi

Deputy Chairman: Henrique Kuchnir

Director: Herman Richter

Treasurer: Adv. Amos Harif

Secretary: Sandra Rejwan

Auditing Committee: Baruch Harpaz, Bentzion Rembiszewsky

Legal Advisor: Adv. Eli Chenchinski

Financial Auditor: Michael Peleg, CPA

Editorial Committee: Idan Harpaz , Sandra Rejwan, Saul Slomovic, Dr. Shmuel Yerushalmi, Markin Tuder, Adv. Tamar Shashoua Horowitz

 

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