46. What do you think of free trade?
I believe free trade is important, because to trade is to negotiate with the other country. Well, conditions that are convenient to both parties are negotiated, not that are convenient for one and not for the other, and negotiations have to be acceptable to both parties. For example, perhaps trade for investment, well, you have to be careful, to negotiate an opening is like saying: “I am wide open and anyone who wishes, may export into my country ".
For example, in Brazil, I believe that there is a 35 per cent tax on electronic equipment. Now, it is different for a one million inhabitant country than it is for a 110 million country like Mexico, or 190 like Brazil, or 1.3 billion in China, a big country with a big market and major expectations, that can invite everybody who wants to sell into the country.
The one who wants to sell electronics has to go or does not compete with the one already in the country and that is what you have to do in these negotiations. What do Chinese do? If anyone wants to sell to China they say “Como do it here” and not only for the “domestic market, for also for the export market and train my people”.
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