April 9, 2022

15:04

Gabriel Abreu and Eduardo Figueiredo – from Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The vice-president of the House, Congressman Marcelo Ramos (PSD), rebutted on Friday, 8, the attempts of the Bolsonaro government to end some sectors of the Manaus Free Trade Zone (MFTZ) and challenged the technicians of the Ministry of Economy to know, personally, the benefits that the Manaus Industrial Pole (PIM) brings to the Amazon and to Brazil.

The parliamentarian said that in the coming days the Government of Amazonas should file a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI) in the Supreme Court (STF), to maintain the competitiveness of the economic development model of the state.

On Thursday, 7, the column Via Brasilia, from CENARIUM, brought a draft of a new decree, to be published in 30 days, points out that the sectors of Two Wheels, IT and concentrates would be outside a list of protection to the MFTz. Together, they account for about 75% of the jobs and revenue of the model, including its supply chains.

End-product and component companies are the largest payers of ICMS to Amazonas. Thus, the drop in state revenue and the ‘breakage’ will be generalized, points out a leading economist from an important national entity in the MFTZ.

“Without these three sectors there is no Free Trade Zone. If you take the results of the Free Trade Zone this month, they grew, driven by concentrates and computer goods. If you add computer goods and motorcycles, we are talking about 75% of the jobs generated in the Manaus Industrial Complex. So, if you publish the decree excluding these three items is the same as not publishing, then I think there is no other way than the government to file the direct action of unconstitutionality”, said Ramos.

Read also: ‘This is an atomic bomb on the Manaus Free Trade Zone’, says Congressman Marcelo Ramos on IPI reduction

They declared the end

According to Ramos, President Bolsonaro and Minister Paulo Guedes are working to end the Amazonas development model, from the outside in, without basing themselves that the Free Trade Zone has security guarantees in the 1988 Constitution.  

“They are ending the Manaus Free Trade Zone, from the outside in, without saying in the Constitution that they are ending it. When we talk about the end of the Manaus Free Trade Zone, it is not something abstract, it is the end of 100 thousand direct jobs, of quality public schools, of a public hospital, it is the end of a strong civil construction market, because it is the wealth generated in the Manaus Free Trade Zone that makes it possible for people to have money to buy an apartment. So, it is a chain reaction attack to the economy of our state. If we don’t react now, very soon it will be too late”, emphasized the lawmaker to the CENARIUM MAGAZINE.

Prejudiced technicians

Marcelo Ramos recalls, still, that Minister Paulo Guedes and the technical team of the Ministry of Economy, since the beginning of the Bolsonaro administration, have not stepped foot in any company of the Manaus Industrial Pole to know up close the benefits of companies that help keep the Amazon forest standing.

“These technicians lack knowledge of Brazil. We are talking about bureaucrats, prejudiced people, people who above all never stepped foot in the Manaus Industrial Pole. The minister Paulo Guedes and the secretary Daniela never stepped foot in a factory of the Industrial Pole of Manaus, they have no notion of what it is here. They don’t see the workers that depend on it to survive, they don’t realize how important this is for the preservation of the Amazon, which is perhaps what is most symbolic of Brazil in relation to the world. So, the position of this government in relation to the PIM is a lamentable mistake”, criticized Ramos.

Unconstitutionality

The federal lawmaker said that in the next few days the governor of Amazonas, Wilson Lima (União Brasil), should file a Direct Unconstitutionality Action (ADI) so that the benefits of the companies installed in Manaus continue to be guaranteed.

“I think that the time has come for the Amazonas State Government to file a lawsuit of unconstitutionality. I think that the governor has to continue negotiating, but, now, we have to negotiate with an action of unconstitutionality in progress in the Supreme Court. Even because the government needs to fear, that if he does not fulfill the commitment with us, which is to only exceptionalize the goods produced in the Free Trade Zone, he runs the risk of judicially have the full declaration of unconstitutionality of the decree and fall all the reduction, including on cars and refrigerator, what we do not want, because we do not produce here, “said the vice president of the House.

Read also: In the House, Marcelo Ramos PDL wants to suspend the decree reducing the IPI

New economic model

The vice-president of the House of Representatives pointed out that it is not easy to create a new economic matrix, from one hour to another, and it is necessary a safe transition that will safeguard the jobs of thousands of Amazonian families. Marcelo Ramos also said that he has a project to remove the need for the Basic Productive Process (PPB), for the raw material to come out of the forest.

“This debate is very interesting. We need to create a transition and I say this with the authority of someone who has been proposing this transition since the beginning of the mandate. I have already proposed to remove the need for PPB, when the producer has regional raw material weighting to facilitate the consolidation of an industry whose raw material comes from the forest. I am the author of the carbon law project, so that you can, through the capacity that the forest has to sequester carbon, generate wealth and a new economy for the Amazon. I have done everything to build alternatives and the Ministry of Economy, which talks about new alternatives, never proposed anything, effectively, of a new economic matrix”, finalized Ramos.