As tarifas de importação no Plano Real

Abstract

Brazil has recently experienced a reform of its import tariff structure, in a process initiated in 1988 - 30 years after the adoption of the so-called Law of Tariffs. Additional tariff changes took place in 1989 and the whole process was significantly deepened in 1990. The Real Plan affected the import tariff policy in multiple ways. Price stabilisation naturally stimulates the demand for import goods as a result of both income and price effects. Nonetheless, reduced import tariff rates were explicitly used as a means to reduce domestic price pressure, and in addition the, tariff policy was affected by the proximity of the date by which Mercosur's External Common Tariff was agreed to enter into operation. This article evaluates the Brazilian import tariff policy in the first two years of the Real Plan, trying to identify its economic logic by reviewing the several changes that have taken place in the import tariff rates for every traded good.