Brazil said Monday it was pressing the United States and European Union to open their markets to more ethanol imports, but has yet to reach a deal with either.
Brazil has made ethanol one of its key demands in global trade talks, noting that the fuel is taxed at much higher rates than petroleum and that the US considers it the only product outside the scope of World Trade Organization rules.
Despite resistance from European and American biofuel producers, the Latin American country is likely to reap a big payoff in ethanol for splitting with developing world allies like India and trading partners such as Argentina in accepting a proposal that aims to break a deadlock over liberalising world trade in farm and industrial products.
On Sunday, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said there was "no question" of a WTO agreement that leaves out ethanol. His spokesman Ricardo Neiva Tavares said Monday that negotiations with the US and 27-nation EU were ongoing.
No discussion on specifics
Michael Mann, a spokesman for EU Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, confirmed the talks but declined to discuss specifics. The United States said it would not comment on the substance of private meetings it is having.
Marcos Jank, head of Brazil's sugarcane industry association, said he was pleased with the EU for recently offering to exempt some 1.7 billion litres (450 million gallons) of Brazilian ethanol from higher tariffs as part of an overall trade pact.
He said the total volume - nearly equal to current Brazilian ethanol exports to the EU - was not yet sufficient, but added that it was important Brussels was now negotiating on the basis that ethanol use will rise dramatically in the coming years. He said he was now hoping for an improved EU offer, taking into account future ethanol consumption levels.
Brazil would make billions of dollars (euros) from lower taxes on ethanol imports, but has struggled getting its fuel accepted as a cheap, eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuels.
Brazil wants the US to reduce the 54 cents per gallon tax it charges on Brazilian ethanol.
