 Okay, so good afternoon everybody and welcome to CSIS. I am the director of the program, my name is Carl Meacham. I am so happy you could join us for this afternoon's event which is part of the America's Programs Brazil initiative. Today I'm very excited to be hosting the launch of Apex Brazil and Brazil's National Confederation of Industries New Report, the Brazil-U.S. investments map. You all have a copy of the report in your seats or on your seats. So during today's session we're going to dig into the content of the report during the panel discussion but before we get to that I'd like to provide you with a little context for today's event and then turn it over to our two very distinguished keynote speakers. Before I start I just want to remind you all that today's event is on the record and that we're live webcasting our event to our online audience. As you all know President Rousseff will be here in the U.S. next week meeting with the private sector folks in New York on Monday and then in meetings at the White House with President Obama and Vice President Biden and other senior U.S. government officials on Tuesday. Needless to say there's a lot of interest surrounding this trip. It's been almost two years since President Rousseff postponed her state visit in the wake of NSA revelations in the summer and fall of 2013 and a lot of folks see this trip as a strong signal that the bilateral relationship is back on track. More and more the relationship is taking on commercial interactions as its foundation. Trade and investment in particular are taking center stage and a lot of that has been enabled by changes President Rousseff has begun to make since starting her second term this year. Right off the bat she overhauled her cabinet nominating Minister Levy as her new finance minister. She's enacted significant budget cuts while raising $9 billion in taxes. The central bank has pushed interest rates to nearly 14% to fight off rising inflation. And President Rousseff announced a new infrastructure plan focused on highways, railroads, ports and airports a promising step that could boost Brazil's export competitiveness. Of course a lot remains to be done and these steps aren't enough I'd say to beat back Brazil's economic challenges. But I would stress and I want to stress very clearly that these are steps in the right direction. And though President Rousseff is facing a difficult economic and political situation at home next week's visit is a real opportunity to build trust and set the stage for a broader bilateral commercial relationship. So first I'm thrilled to welcome our guests. We have Ambassador Luis Alberto Figueiro Machado Brazil's new ambassador here in Washington. He served across the Brazilian government most recently as foreign minister. He's worked on environmental issues and he's been posted at the UN, the embassy in Santiago Chile which I like a lot because I'm half Chilean so that's a good thing and has held numerous responsibilities within Itamarati. He was credentialed about a month ago and I'm honored that he could join us today. So Mr. Ambassador if you could join me here on the podium, the floor is yours and thank you so much for joining us today. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to thank first the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the director of the America's program, Carl Meacham personally for inviting me to make the introductory remarks at today's event. I would like to say that it is always a pleasure to speak about Brazil and about our bilateral relationship with the United States. It is indeed also a pleasure to participate in this event with the deputy and the secretary of commerce, Ken Hyatt, who has been such a good friend of my country. Mr. Hyatt has tirelessly advocated for the strengthening of economic and commercial ties between Brazil and the U.S. and has worked very hard with his counterparts in Brazil to advance a trade agenda that could better reflect the potential of our relationship. Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, Brazil and the United States have a very strong economic partnership. The numbers present in the Brazil-U.S. investment map to be launched today indicate there is a strong confidence in both countries of the benefits of increasing bilateral trade and investments. Investments generate revenues and create jobs. They also contribute to the stronger economic and cultural ties that bring us increasingly together. Over the last years, an increasing number of Brazilian companies have invested in the United States, and this is a new and very positive trend. I am pleased to observe that in addition to the dozens of large Brazilian companies already present in the U.S. market, there is a growing number of mid-sized enterprises from my country that have realized the potential of expanding their activities to the United States. It is estimated that Brazilian companies that invested in the U.S. are responsible for generating approximately 75,000 jobs, and that's a very important number. The Brazil-U.S. investment map reinforces this perception by stating that the growth of Brazilian investment flows to the United States over the last years has exceeded that from other emerging economies such as China, Mexico, India, and others. Also according to the study, assets owned by American companies in Brazil have created from their part around 500,000 jobs, making them an important channel to spur economic development in my country. The growing presence of companies in both countries illustrates the shared interests and aspirations of our populations for high quality and accessible goods and services. In this context, I am pleased to participate in today's event and hope the information discussed here will contribute to the formulation of new ideas and new initiatives that can strengthen our economic and commercial ties even further. On the eve of a landmark visit by President Dilma Rousseff to the United States, I am confident that economic and trade ties between the two countries will grow even stronger in a renewed and deeper relationship and partnership. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ambassador, for those excellent remarks. Now I am happy to welcome our Deputy Under Secretary for International Trade at the U.S. Department of Commerce, Ken Hyatt. He has worked at the Department of Commerce since 2010. Secretary Hyatt has a wealth of experience in trade, competitiveness, and public-private interactions, and he has been key to the continuing development of the U.S. Brazil commercial dialogues, which have been the steady drumbeat of the bilateral relationship. So Secretary Hyatt, the floor is yours. Good afternoon. Thank you, Ambassador. It is always a pleasure to see you, and I do thank you for referring to my tireless work. One of my friends here mentioned I looked tired as they saw me today. And we have been working, I think, tirelessly to make the visit next week as successful as we possibly can. So thank you for your kind words. Thank you for the invitation today. I did want to start and say as simply and as directly as I could how much the U.S. values this relationship and how hard, again, we will continue to work to – we're excited about the opportunities to deepen and strengthen that partnership and working together. I did read the report, and it's interesting you chose this slide because it was one of the facts that I found most interesting in the report was the change in Brazilian investment over this time period. And someone else will probably describe the slide. It's probably not my role to describe it. But looking at 2010 to 2012 and the extraordinary amount of investment that occurred if you compare 2001 to 2012, but in particular in these last couple of years, and it's also something I experienced when I was in Sao Paulo talking with possible – with Brazilian companies who were interested in investing. I did want to congratulate the group that developed this publication, Apex Brazil, our partner, the Brazil Industries Coalition, the National Confederation of Industry. I've had the great pleasure of working with many of you and continue to be pleased to have the opportunities to work together going forward. You mentioned my good friend, I have the privilege of co-sharing the U.S.-Brazil commercial dialogue with my good friend and partner, Secretary Daniel Godinio. And I think both of us have a shared belief in the potential for even more trade and investment growth. As some of you know, investment is one of the five areas of focus of the commercial dialogue. Trade facilitation, regulatory practices, standards and conformity assessment. And we've just begun a set of work on innovation. And we're excited about each of these patterns of work. Our topic today, investment, I had the opportunity to sign the memorandum of intent between SelectUSA and Apex Brazil. It was last year in Brasilia, I believe. And it's great to see this kind of work as a piece of the work that we can do to realize that investment. As I read the report, there were macro pieces that were interesting to me. The U.S. is the second largest investor in Brazil. The growth pattern we've talked about, the jobs you created, that you talked about being created in both of our countries. What I was particularly interested in was the sectoral and the geographic analysis that is also in this document, which particularly if I'm an investor in one of these countries, it helps me understand that there are paths of investors that have been successful in sectors. So that as I think about oil and gas as an example, there is a track record of successful investment. I liked in the report identification of the states from which and to which investment came, which again, as a possible investor, is a way for me to understand the environment into which I might invest. So again, commend you for the report. I do view it as a next step in the relationship between SelectUSA and Apex Brazil. Much work to be done going forward. It is my job, it was to ask at least my team. So exactly what are we doing with Apex when, right? What is the concrete deliverable that will generate bilateral investment in this case? So I think the publication is a great step forward. Thank you again for the invitation to be here. Very excited for next week's visit. And some of us, like myself, have now to go back to continue to work to prepare for next week's visit. So again, thank you very much and nice to see so many of our friends here. So with those wonderful speeches, I'd like to ask our panelists to join us on the stage. All of our panelists together. So I now have the privilege of introducing our wonderful panel this afternoon. Immediately to my right is my good friend and colleague, Ana Ropeza from Apex Brazil. She's the executive manager for Market Strategy. She's played an instrumental role in the development of this report. And she is someone who comes with great insight on the investment flows between the two countries. And she's a key element in this partnership that we have between CSIS Americas and Apex. So it's wonderful to have you. Next to Ana is Ambassador Vinay Thuma Lapali, the executive director of SelectUSA. At the U.S. Department of Commerce. Welcome. Thank you so much for being here. You're the counterpart agency to Apex. And to his right we have Constanza Negri-Viasuti, the trade policy manager for Brazil's National Confederation of Industry. And it's a wonderful thing to see you here. I've had a long relationship with you and your organization since I was working for Senator Lugar on the Foreign Relations Committee. So it's wonderful to have you with us. And to her right is Rodrigo Gazzaneo, senior manager for the Executive Briefing Center at EMC to the second power, a U.S. tech company heavily invested in Brazil. So welcome as well. And finally we have Antonio Moreira, CEO for North American Operations at Stefanini, a Brazilian tech company heavily invested in the United States. So thank you so much for being here. This new report, the investments map is really a fantastic report. Both the secretary and the ambassador have made very good references to the information in there. So now we're going to delve deep into the nature and scope of the report in the bilateral investment relationship. One of the findings, the finding that was key and that came out in a very clear way when I read the report is that the Brazilian assets in the U.S. have grown over 220 percent between 2007 and 2012 concurrently, totaling almost $94 billion. That is quite a statistic. So I'm not going to, you know, go through all of the wonderful information here because I think Anna, you're the expert and I'm going to leave that job up to you. So why don't you take it from here and we'll go around. Okay. So thank you very much for everybody for coming. Thank you, Carl, for hosting us. Ambassador and Undersecretary, it's a great pleasure to have you here. Thank you very much. In fact, I believe I don't have to explain much more the report because Undersecretary Hyatt has read it so carefully. Thank you very much for that. Well, first of all, I'd like to mention how and why we came to this report. In Apex Brazil, we have this type of report and type of survey in such a way we can understand better the environment where we are working at and to design new strategies to approach those markets. Since last year, we have this memorandum of understanding with Select USA. And we decided that it was important to have this map to understand the real picture in such a way we could design such strategies and foster more investment between the two countries. So we have been supported by CNI in this initiative and the Brazil Indices Coalition. And we really have found some surprising numbers. The first one you have mentioned about the Brazilian assets. Maybe, Jill, if you could just go to the next slide. This is the numbers we have found that we have come from about 29 billion dollars investment assets in the United States in 2007 to over $93 billion in 2012. This shows that Brazilian capital is investing more in assets in the United States and that Brazilian companies are interested in maybe having joint ventures with United States companies. And they are investing in several different sectors. We have companies here that have bought out assets in pharmaceutical sectors. Aerospace sectors, metal mining, so it's a very broad scope of sectors. If you could just come back for the first slide, Jill. This is also this, maybe it was for us the most surprising number to when we selected a group of emerging economies and we compared how the Brazilian investment, the investment flows from Brazil was behaving compared to those economies, we found out that from 2001 to 2012, we have been the country whose investment flows have grown more into the United States. So of course, Mexico has the largest stock of FDI in the United States precisely because of the relationship under NAFTA. This should be natural to see. But we were really surprised to see that we are surpassing China, India, Turkey and South Africa in a very comfortable position. So for me, personally, it represents like a pattern, especially in the last three years of the period that we have analyzed. And we understand that having said that, it becomes even more clear that the Brazilian commitment to the United States and the strength of this relationship is really solid. So for us, it's really good to see that and it gives us even more motivation to work more and to have more investment, Brazilian investment into the United States. Another key finding that we have is that Brazilian investments here, usually they generate more jobs than other countries which invest in the United States as well. So some of the sectors where we are investing are really labor intensive. But regardless of it, they are also high technology and high value aggregated. So we could combine two important pillars of development, which is job generation and technological cooperation in such way we could foster development in the two countries. Maybe for the next slide, the last one, which was also mentioned by Under Secretary Hyatt, we really wanted to have this notion of how broad was our presence here in the United States. And we see that from the 50 states, almost 30 are impacted by Brazilian investment. Of course, you have more invested concentrated in some states like Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Pennsylvania. But we can see that there is this broad reach of Brazilian investment here. And we see that there are states that could really benefit more from this relationship. We have done the same comparison to where the investment from United States come, from each state here, where does this investment come? And then we saw even broader reach because over 40 states from United States invest in Brazil. So this also shows the mutual benefits because while in Brazil over 600 jobs have been generated by such investments, in the United States we have almost 100 jobs being generated. So it's truly like a mutual beneficial relationship. And we really hope that with this information we can move forward and have even more investments between the two countries. Excellent. Thank you, Anna. Ambassador. Thank you. Thank you for this opportunity. Thank you all for coming and those of you who are listening and watching, welcome. It's a delight for me to be on the panel here to talk about SelectUSA. Anna touched on an agreement we signed, but I think it's much, much more than a piece of paper. I think it's a shared values about how we can help each other, particularly businesses. Looking at the U.S. market, just the sheer size of the U.S. economy pushing $18 trillion somewhere between 17 and $18 trillion economy that's growing at a good clip coming out of the 2007, 2008 slowdown global contraction that took place. If you really look at where we are today and where we are expected to be heading, look at the unemployment rate here. Look at the overall opportunities for businesses. So I'd like to frame it really about you touched on mutual benefit. Think of companies in the United States who could benefit and who often always benefit going to Brazil and expanding their footprint. Look at the Brazilian businesses coming to the United States, just the partnerships, the collaborations, the market. All the attributes that your report so well covers. And I know there's proofs in the pudding. Looking at businesses that are here represented, but there are so many, this is really scratching the surface. Think of the opportunities that those businesses have in the United States. Whether you're in the newest techniques of developing some apps in the technology sector, whether it's in the alternative energy sector. Renewable energy specifically, whether you're talking about manufacturing. We had one of prominent people in Brazil was on our panel at the Select USA Summit 2015, Embraer's CEO Mr. Corrado was on the opening panel talking about the advantages and the huge benefits that Embraer has and they're very bullish on the US market. How one of the points he touched on on the panel was how competitive Embraer is and expects to get to what their position is globally to be making their aircraft parts and assemblies and just being in that particular business. But I think we're just talking about very specific, very limited number of people. We're really talking about scratching the surface. I would like the message to be loud and clear that not only are we open for your business to Brazilian businesses but we stand ready to assist you at all levels. At the federal government to help you with tools that businesses need in terms of information that they need as they go through the due diligence phase. We will put you in touch with local contacts at the state and regional levels. We will be your partner at the federal level to be your ombudsman, to assist you to provide concierge services to you to help you make money. At the end of the day, when you progress, when you are profitable, you grow, when you grow in the United States, you also grow in back in Brazil. We've seen that evidence in every single case. So I'll kind of keep my remarks at that level and I'm just happy to be here. Have a good time. Thank you, Ambassador. And let me move on to CNAI now in Constanza. How do you guys report of this process as well? You've been for years trying to push certain reforms, market reforms and things. What do the findings of this report sort of say to you? How are things going in that regard? Thank you very much. It's a pleasure for me to be here. At CNAI, our main role is to interact with the government to shape policies in terms of a pro-business agenda. So I don't think I need to go through those numbers. I think they speak themselves in a certain way. For us, it's sort of a trend, as I was telling you yesterday, that we were feeling already. CNAI hosts the Forum of Transnational Companies. So among 50 transnational Brazilian companies, and we tried to shape with them this agenda, so this topic comes and combines two priority areas in our work. On one side is the U.S. Brazil agenda, which is a strategic issue for us. CNAI has been active for more than 40 years through the U.S. Business Council. But at the same time, it combines the element of internationalization policies. So the importance of Brazilian investment abroad is a new feature into the policy structure. And it's an area where CNAI is working very actively together with this forum. I think that, as I said, for us, it's something that we already are very familiar with the richness of this relationship, not only in terms of trade. For manufacturer exports, it's the main market, but also in terms of investment. So there's a lot of things that we need to do. There's a lot of potential. The main priorities, I would say, that we're trying to, in our agenda shape in this area, I will try to focus more or less to give you a flavor of what they are, because mainly some of them are linked to our more domestic agenda. But part of that is linked to the tax and labor issues. That's one of our main areas of action in terms of CNAI. Our priority is to get the Brazilian model revised in terms of investment because it's a model that has been conceived from the angle of the approach to import capital. So we still have a situation in which the tax system is not stimulating investment to go abroad. So we need to make sure that those things are changed. And they go in the same way in which the flow of investment goes. We're also asking for, in terms of our agenda for more approximation to the OECD standards in terms of investment policy. So in a certain way, we're trying to match the software and the hardware. So things have changed. We need to update some policies. In terms of labor, I think it's important. It's another area. We need to reduce the cost of expectation of the workforce. There's something that is a cost. It's a burden for the Brazilian industry. There's a second area that is more linked to finance and credit insurance. So we need to make sure that there's access to finance. And where those investments go abroad, they also have insurance in terms of risk, political risk that they will carry out. There's the other area where we get more into the US agenda that is linked to the economic external agenda. And there our priorities are to coordinate investment promotion activities that are fostering this type of relations. The area of competitive intelligence, so provide mechanisms that would give information to the companies on what are the regulation issues, what are the regulatory issues where and that would help them. And of course, there's another area that is more linked to agreements, international agreements in the area of investment promotion and protection, double taxation, bilateral tax treaty agreements, and also social security agreements. Those are the main recommendations. But I think there's another one that is more cross-cutting area where we've been acting and there's a report that is going out in these days from CNI. And it's an area where we are putting a lot of efforts in raising awareness that those investment abroad, they don't have a negative impact in terms of exports and domestic production. So they can produce and they can bring gains in terms of the economic and long term for the countries. That's a very important area because as I said, the country has a sort of set of policies. And for that we have done a study with 41 multinational from Brazil in terms of quantitative but also qualitative. And we came to the conclusion that that sort of concern in terms of what are the impacts of investing abroad, they are only positive for the country as a whole. So in a certain way what I see this map, it brings us very interesting information. But now we need to start thinking on how do we build new policies? What are the right policies and new policies that we need for those numbers? So I think I will stop here. Now this is very helpful and it gives a more comprehensive view to all of these things, the facts and figures that you've gotten in the report, the issues that are still yet to be dealt with or reformed, et cetera. And now we get to the actual cases of how folks are doing business in both countries, what you see as the obstacles, the things that you've been able to achieve. How do you guys see those things? I think you guys are sort of the case study aspect of the panel. So I'm just going to let you go first and we'll start from there. Okay, thank you very much, Carl. Thank you all for being here and thanks CSIS, thanks AIPICS for the invitation. I'm here on behalf of one of the cases showcased on the report. It's EMC. EMC is a global leading technology company originally from Massachusetts. But now in presently in 86 countries all over the world. The operation in Brazil is relatively new. We started in 1986 and it has been growing with successful investments and generating jobs and gaining value. And the main reason why I'm here showcasing EMC is because of a new model of investment that has been the R&D center built in Brazil. So from 96 on, EMC has brought a manufacturing facility to Brazil that also helped cover the large territory and geography with regional impact. And later on, we brought the full chain of value of the company to the country. No other country outside US has from R&D innovation to manufacturing and services. So it makes us proud as Brazilian and EMC collaborators to be there. I have some interesting results of this initiative that started a couple of years ago as part of this investment that it's around 100 million. EMC has built a building in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro University Park. And we are together with other leading technology and industry companies like Haliburton, Schlumberger. There's a greater focus on oil and gas like we mentioned, but EMC is there for the technology. We are developing many interesting projects around oil and gas innovation powered by technology. And some related to smart cities that can be enjoyed on the next summer Olympics round that's going to be in 2016. So one of our partners is the Rio de Janeiro City. We are using our technology to improve mobility, health care, doing research on dengue fever and helping optimize services in a trend that we call smart cities. Because EMC is all about information and we say that information is the new soil of wealth. EMC invested in Brazil, so we believed on that soil. And in less than a year of operating that center, we have almost a dozen new patents that were submitted in Brazil. So it's local innovation that can generate global impact. These innovations are creating a go to market for all these 86 countries and plus. And it has proven for this multinational company that Brazil can also be not only a very interesting market to invest because we are consuming infrastructure and technology is infrastructure today, just like roads and airports, connectivity, data processing capabilities. But also that Brazil can be an innovative environment. We have a lot of brains available to be assessed and touched by companies that are willing to be creative and develop new solutions. So as a Brazilian, as an EMC collaborator, I'm very happy to be here once again. Thanks for the invitation. Right, great, Antonia. Okay, all right, good afternoon. Well, thanks for the opportunity to be part of this panel here. And I'm responsible for the North American Asia Pacific operation of Stefanini. And Stefanini is a globally $1 billion company that started operations in 25 years ago in Sao Paulo and has grown globally to 34 countries. And we have today around 20,000 employees worldwide, right, associates worldwide. And I would like to start by sharing with you our experience of expanding the company here in the US. We start back in 2001, right? I was actually the one that Marcus Stefanini, which still owns the company, invited to come to the US to start the operation here, and sorry. I was working at that time in our branch in south of Brazil. We started to expand the existing and create new client relationships, right, in this country here. So that is our primary goal by expanding the global footprint of Stefanini in the US. Almost now, we are almost 15 years later, and we have grown our company here to today around $200 million. We have more over 2,000 associates working in the US soil. And we generate also millions of dollars in terms of tax, both federal tax and state taxes. I'm proud to say that during this time, we had the opportunity to start and to nurturing and to growth relationships with global companies based in the US, global US corporations, such John Deere and Ford model company, Alcoa, Heinz, Caterpillar, Embraer, right? So also we do capital one here in Virginia, just to name a few. We serve not only in the US, but we serve most of those companies globally. It's very, we have very few clients that are global corporations. Operations and that we only serve and we provide services in one country, in one region. So most of them we have provided services in different regions. The first office that we established in the US was in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, right, in 2001. And after that, we opened also operations in Chicago, New York City, Richmond, Virginia, Virginia, just goes by. Philadelphia, Atlanta, Houston. And we have a large delivery center also in Davenport, Iowa. And another one in our US had quarter in Southfield, Michigan, it's a suburb of Detroit. In terms of our investments and impact in the US economy, we already mentioned some of the points. But we have created in the past, around past two years around 1,000 new positions here. And we have already currently on place to onboard around 750 people in the US. We, other statistics, we have the executive leadership team in the US. It's comprised for different nationalities. We are a very diversified company. And different from other companies in our industry from other countries. We are very, as I said, diverse in terms of the employees that we have. So I am the only Brazilian in the executive leadership today. And not for a reason or another, but because we embrace that, diversity in the culture, right? So we learn how to grow in different countries and we preserve always the culture and the values of the company. We're respecting local cultures and the way of doing business in the local that we are. So it's very important to operate in that level. Can I ask you a question on that? And I'm gonna bring it back to the report. And I just wanna focus on you guys just a little bit. Just if you could describe a little bit, what's the environment like? What's the contrast of doing business in Brazil? What's it like to do business in the US? What are you seeing changing in Brazil? What are you seeing that you'd like to see differently in the US? I think a lot of folks are talking about different things that are happening with trade facilitation. But they don't really understand specifically what it means for businesses. So could you sort of add to that so you can give some greater understanding to folks what those terms really mean? How do you see the environment? What do you want to change? Where do you want to go? Why don't we stay here? Well, I think that overall, when you look at the history of EMC in Brazil and the fact that the company has been continuing to do investments more and more, so it's positive, right? But there are challenges that we see. So the fact that we are innovating there is very, very positive. But we think that the next step is to become more competitive as a Brazilian collaborator to the global market, and that includes the United States. And from our look at the market, right, from the way we see the market in the technology, having access to technology infrastructure is key. Connectivity is a challenge for us, just like I said, just like roads and railways and airports. So that's one of the challenges that covers for us. And that's very interesting because EMC has a global strategy and we have two models of distributed services and innovation. We have the R&D facilities where we have this new one in Brazil and the United States and Israel, where very few highly qualified people are solving innovative problems. And we also have what we call the center of excellence where we are doing more of our respective tasks, so you need to have a lot of hands on. And that model was still not viable in Brazil initially, right? And we believe that the fact of being competitive was weighed on that balance for us. So competitiveness is what we see that has room for improvement. In terms of market, Brazil continues to consume infrastructure in all many ways as we build our growth, as our economy develops, and that's a very positive environment for an American company to invest. Antonio, do you want to add something? We used to also answer this question years ago and saying that in the US one of the things that I really like about doing business here is the fact that the whole environment starts up in a new company as a baby, that you have to help to grow, right? So it seems to be starting for the support from programs, governments and local and federal government, but also with the policy in terms of taxation. So this is another thing. For us it was very important also as a Brazilian company because being here, I believe that because it's the first and largest market in the world, the US and more sophisticated that help us also to grow and in terms of maturity as a whole company globally, right? Being here in the US, that was very important. And the opportunities that the market here presents are huge evidently, right? So that is also important. Consensus, when you talk to business people in Brazil, what do you hear? I mean, obviously because of the report, you're seeing that there's a trend of more and more investment coming into the United States and the sizable investment from the United States into Brazil. I mean, it's very clear. It's huge. But what do you think can be done to sort of bring Brazil a little closer to that kind of investment that you're seeing from the United States into Brazil? What structural things do you see? And I know you had sort of a list, but in the world of the possible and we're talking now with trade facilitation being sort of the issue that everybody's talking about. Can you talk to me a little bit about within that framework where do you see sort of the best changes possible? In terms of trade facilitation? Yeah. I think that in terms of trade facilitation, but probably this is more linked to the export of goods. But of course, sometimes exports of goods and investment, sometimes they go, many times they go hand in hand. So in terms of trade facilitation is an area where Brazil is moving forward very fast, I would say. The single window program, the Brazilian government with the support of the private sector is investing a lot of effort into that program. And as you know there's this agreement that has been signed with commerce to cooperate in that area. I think that's a concrete delivery that we have today. There's a second delivery that, as you are asking me, things that can be achieved in the midterm is linked to trade facilitation and it's called the Economic Authorized Program, Operating Program. So Brazil is also developing its own system. The US has already the city path, but the Brazilian model is being built looking into the US and the EU model. So that means that when that model will be finalized on the Brazilian side, we'll be able to think about a mutual recognition agreement. So that will sort of create more benefits in that program. So aiming at this sort of fast track to label, certificate companies within the program. That's something that can be achieved, I would say, in the midterm as you were asking me. I have plenty of other things, but I'll move to the long term. Okay, of course. And with that I want to go to the ambassador and then I want to get back to Anna so you can talk to us a little bit more about the findings. But Ambassador, what do you think Brazil needs to do in order to track more US investment? Brazil's doing plenty. I think the attractiveness of Brazilian market, just the sheer size of the economy, and this appetite, this growth in middle class that's created such a tremendous market for so many companies. EMC is a good example, but there's really hundreds of companies that are seeing opportunities in Brazil. And it's indicative in the numbers. If you look at the sheer dollars and the number of companies. But I see this, I'm going back to this two way investment, which is really the spirit of this agreement that we have with Apex Brazil, is how can we be the facilitator? How can the facilitators, particularly for the SMEs, they need the assistance, they need the guidance, they need the information, they need sort of the services that we are in a position to provide. So I think it's broad, I think it's in all sectors. I don't think it's limited to a sector. I think it could be in technology, it could be food services, it could be processing, it could be transportation, it could be energy. I mean, often people see that, oh, Brazil's got it all figured out. They know how to make ethanol, they know how to make alternative fuels. But it's not so simple because how do you diversify? So I think it's a broad answer to how can we, I really believe we're just scratching the surface now to be of value for U.S. companies to go to Brazil. I think Brazilians are doing lots of good things. A lot of it is happening organically. But I think we can do things at local level and kind of streamline the connection that the federal, you know, Brazil are connecting to the different, you know, regions and through universities, through incubators, through all these different mechanisms that, you know, the U.S. businesses can go and take advantage of. And to stop scratching the surface, I'm going to come to you, Anna. And we're going to go a little deeper here. Secretary Hyatt talked a little bit about big investments in the energy sector. What other areas are attracting attention and what sectors should we keep an eye on for trade between the U.S. and Brazil? Okay. Well, when it comes to trade, our relationship is already very strong. Historically, we have strong ties in trade. We always say in the United States, not only our second most important partner in terms of trade, in volume of trade, but I believe it would be like one of our first partners in terms of quality of trade. Because while for other economies we export commodities and low aggregated value goods, to United States our trade flows, they are mostly composed by high value added products. So this brings lots of opportunities for companies from different sectors. In Apex Brazil, we support over 70 industry sectors which aim to export and 55 of them are focused in the United States market. So we have from aerospace and aircraft parts to consumer goods such as high-end fashion, because this is an industry where Brazil is very well recognized. And we have machinery, equipment, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage. So there are plenty of sectors which have opportunity here for the United States. When it comes especially to investing in the United States, we have an office in Miami since 2006 and for the last year they have supported over 200 Brazilian companies aiming to invest in the United States. Most of them come from those industries I have mentioned. So food and beverages, textile, high-end clothing, machinery and equipment and chemical. So we see that those flows are really happening when we support those companies coming to us and asking for help. And since last year we have signed this MOI and I believe this will be even a step further in terms of support for those companies because for instance we have, together we have decided to support three priority sectors in this MOI between Apex Brazil and SelectUSA, which would be IT, food and beverage and textiles. These are sectors where we see that Brazilian companies have competitiveness and the United States is searching for investments. So our plan now is to really start working with those three priority sectors. Apex Brazil would select the Brazilian companies that have the special features that are necessary to come here and to invest and SelectUSA would help giving them information and all the policy and advocacy job they can do to facilitate Brazilian investments in the United States. So we are really looking forward for these next steps. In fact, I believe like next week we are going to start some of those next steps and we are also working to attract more North American investment into Brazil. We carry on several outreach actions here in the United States to attract investment both from the United States company and equity funds. So in the second semester of this year we are also carrying out some of these initiatives, especially focused on R&D and biotech and renewable energies in such a way we can also attract those investments into Brazil. So for us we only see this with good eyes and it's like the things are really going on. Now the good things that we have evidence to show that and we have numbers that we found them in the most secure database in the world including the Bureau of Economic Analysis here from the United States, the UNCTAD and FTI so I believe like those are numbers where we can really rely on and start building new strategies for the opponent. Excellent. Before I open the chair. I just want to add something, I think it's very important what the last comment from Ana in terms of data. We've done a big step because we all know that in terms of investment data is something that is challenging. So you need to target to have creative solutions for that. So I think that's one of the main steps because we put together data that is it will fit into the policy areas in different areas and I think from our perspective CNI and APEX we shared we work together with the Brazilian Industry Coalition and just in this year I'm sure he will talk then but our main aim is to start this type of work and also liaising helping with the support of the Brazilian Industry Coalition in this area because this type of qualitative info is crucial. The info, the data that you have at national level something is over it has over dimensions or under dimensions of some sector so it's very important to build this sort of data. Before I go to the audience and get some questions from the audience I just want to ask one simple question to our folks from the private sector here. So tech startups are blooming in Brazil right now. What would you want to hear the presidents talk about when it comes to the reforms that could be necessary that would facilitate for your business to flourish tech specific because this is an area that's growing. When you look at technology and you look at this hemisphere Brazil is by far the country where you're seeing more technological, more innovation compared to any other place in the region other than the US. Exactly. I think that's part also of that social inclusion movement that has been going on for the last decade and together with the mobile technology being adopted many of these tech startups they are related to providing creative services in areas that were not covered at all or lacked the minimum communication. So creativity is also again a very important phase of the Brazilian economy. I think that anything that a government can do to create a positive environment for that kind of innovation and attracting the funding necessary for these adventurous entrepreneurs to develop their business is positive. So I'm very happy with the results that we are seeing in the country already but there's always room for more. We at EMC and the technology center in Brazil we try to bring some of the great lessons from the California innovation. We try to be the Silicon Valley in there. We collaborate with many of these startups and innovators in our ecosystem and across the university and we see that the creativity, the capabilities, it's all there. We just need a little push to create a very, very positive environment and really be transformative here. I was very happy to hear that IT is going to be on that agenda because we are seeing globally and especially in Brazil digital revolution going on as technology is going on board many, many heavy industry and basic industry machinery. So we have an example. We are neighbors to General Electric in the technology park and they are also listed on the report. EMC is a global partner of General Electric in innovation one of the great use cases in the aviation where we are using technology to power the auto adjustments in real time of the turbines. That's a small thing but it's a 1% efficiency improvement that saves billions worldwide. That's the kind of impact we can create with technology. Very simple but can be multiplied to billions in oil and gas and manufacturing in everything that's related to efficiency. So we are very much into that. And in Brazil it also has an additional impact that it's the social services. I see that as the greatest face of our local innovation. These startups they are covering many social services communicating, collaborating. I see that a lot in Rio going on and once again what I'd like to see is a more and more easier environment for these kind of startups to flourish. Complement what? He just said by saying that it's very important to also absorb for the mixed environment more friendly for those companies to continue to find ways to reduce tax labor costs associated and then that can facilitate the growth of this market. And from the perspective of a Brazilian company doing business outside, I think it's very the support just to complement and to think the support of Apex was critical for us and growing here in the US. Great and you got a plug too. Anyway, so let me open it up to folks in the audience if you have any questions just raise your hand. And if you have any questions just raise your hand. Here we'll start in the middle. There's a microphone coming. Hello my name is Lucas Oliveira. I'm here with the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils. Yesterday the CSIS hosted a conference on the Philippines and which is certainly a country that's experienced a lot of economic and competitiveness growth over the last couple years. One of the biggest factors and agents that they cited for this growth has been the new leadership's commitment to eradicating corruption in the government. Having said that Brazil certainly has many parallels when it comes to political corruption. I want to know how big of a factor is this in the minds of certainly American investors and what's being done to change this political reality in Brazil. Thank you. Ambassador. Oh my goodness. I should have been the last person. I think I don't feel qualified to really make any big statements but I mean just a sheer reference to corruption not in line with attractiveness. I think it speaks for itself. All I can say is the little bit I know about I wouldn't call it a trend but just the actions that were taken as you referred to by this administration were I think huge. There were just paradigm shifting actions and they were noticed worldwide. That's all I can say. I can't say well I don't have any indices to cite the confidence index or ease of doing business index and how this was impacted by how the government how the administration took care of it. I don't feel so qualified but I think it's a big thing and it has to do I think my colleagues here I'm also from the business sector. I'm a political appointee here. This is my fifth or sixth year in government. 31 years in the private sector. One of the number one things businesses look for is predictability. They want to have the confidence what tomorrow holds for their ideas, for their plans, for their strategies. So I think when businesses are strategizing like okay what do we do next? Where do we go? I think they're looking for predictability and having a sense of what tomorrow holds. I think corruption or the level of corruption and how corruption is being dealt with how prevalent it is and just what kind of corruption is it in all that kind of stuff. All of that plays into it. So when something like this gets addressed like it was or is being addressed in Brazil I think it bodes really well for businesses from all over the world to look at Brazil as a hot prospect for them to go and grow their enterprises. I know I'm not saying anything you all don't know but I think it's just making a general comment about what businesses look for. Clearly it's very important. Did you want to add to that? Anybody else? It's a tough issue. No, I think you have to record for everyone. If I just may compliment some points that totally correct your vision ambassador and it's glad to know that our perception about what we are doing in Brazil abroad is the one you have shared with us. There are two pillars. I totally agree also with the thing about business needing predictability to remain in business and there are two good things here to share. One of them is that through these corruption scandals they have had a positive externality which are better and more clear governance rules in Brazil. For the next two years we believe that this will have a good reflection on business, not only Brazilian business but also foreign business operating in Brazil. The other things that we also are going through an economic adjustment which is necessary for the country to grow but we have seen that the rating agencies have not diminished the Brazilian rating like standard and poor they have maintained the Brazilian rating for investment and credit. I only see positive externalities coming from the corruption scandals we have been facing for the last months. Let me keep on going around here. Are there any tweeted questions? One of our Twitter followers asked what's the next concrete policy step to ease investment outside of the APEX and select USA framework? That's a good one. You want to repeat it again? She speaks fast. Sorry. What's the next concrete policy step to ease investment outside the APEX and select USA framework? Okay, well we have the visit of President Dilma next week and we understand that this re-approximation of both countries' leaders is a very positive sign of what we can expect next for the next months. So what we see now is that we shall have more approximation between the two countries and more openness to start negotiating agreements that could foster even more the investments. But by now we do not have anything concrete to announce prior to the visit because this is the work of our president four days, five days, I believe. Okay. I'll look right over here in the middle. Hello everybody, my name is Naveed from the Clarity Associates. I understand President Rousseff made an announcement yesterday about trade promotion or new trade plan and I was wondering if you guys could highlight some of the most important initiatives of that plan and how much you see it actually taking concrete steps. Well the national exporting plan as you said has been launched yesterday and it comprises five pillars. The first one is market access the second one trade facilitation the third one I forgot the third one finance, taxes but there is one left. She will remember. I may. Yeah we may remember. Actually those five pillars they are focused first one finding the priority markets where Brazilian exports should be focused for the next four years. So we have done a research in Apex Brazil together with the Brazilian federal government and we have assigned 32 priority markets where our exports are more competitive and should be aimed at too. Of course United States is one of those markets and we foresee that we have lots of opportunities here in terms of food and beverage fashion goods and IT services as we see here. In terms of trade facilitation what the national exporting plan brings is that really trying to open more negotiation with other countries. United States of course is one of the priorities and other countries in our regions just like European Union and South Korea Colombia they are on the list as main priorities for negotiating new agreements. In terms of financing and taxes we have had good news yesterday because we thought that with the fiscal adjustments we would lose some of the budget for financing exports and this has not happened so for us it's like a very good sign of the willingness to really support exports and to have this as one of the pillars of development for the country. And as for financing they are also announcing new measures in such way that lines of credit could be more accessible for companies from all sizes and I'm really sorry but I really forgot the fifth pillar. It'll come. What I can share is everything is online I'm sure you can try to share with you that I think is the most important thing is that sort of change the new air in things and this comes also from a demand from the industry so the fact of looking that Brazil needs to take into account the international agenda as part of the economic development so that's one more tool that we need to take into account seriously and I think that the agenda, the area of access is an area where we hopefully will see changes and we see already signals of that and the main demand because the industry has been very active in liaising with the government and giving input into that is the thing that Brazil needs to play several games at the same time so multilateral at least is crucial for us but also there are other games that we need to start playing because that's part of so while we keep on focusing on that level things have changed so the context is different as it used to be so I think the main message of yesterday is we need more Brazil in the world and if you listen and go through the ministry speech you will see that there's this type of message and bringing more Brazil into the world and I think that's a very important message and it has been very positively welcomed by the industry. There's one question up here. Good afternoon Tomás Costa with Brazil initiative at George Washington University my question is there were some comments regarding the cost of labor here in the United States but my question is both for representatives from business and also from from Brazil is to what extent Brazilian companies and even American companies are seeing FDI today here in the United States in Brazil as a platform for the global market for instance in the IT some Brazilian small business will say well the reason we also want to be in the United States is that once we are in the United States we develop a reputation that project us elsewhere in the world so to what extent actually globalization is driving this type of bilateral exchange thank you You know what else I would add which is I think sort of a timely development which is trade promotion authority that the President of the United States has gotten and how TPP is probably going to progress and maybe then teach it how does that also fit into the sort of global environment in which you see possibly pressures to reform that didn't exist before not just the internal side but the external side as well Well first regarding the issue of using FDI as a platform to reach other markets yes indeed and what we are seeing even more and especially when we have analyzed data for the report is that what we are seeing is that really integration amongst supply chains between Brazil United States and the other way back so we understand that by integrating such supply chains and value chains companies are really becoming more competitive and being able to reach other markets maybe Rodrigo could share some of the information but he has already shared with us like EMC has been installed in Brazil but really they are serving many Latin American countries and also globally any other country which needs innovation from could have it from the Brazil operation and as for for TPP and TTIP I believe that these movements are really shaping the new rules of the game in the world and as Constança has mentioned what we are seeing now from Brazilian government and especially from Brazilian private sector which is really demanding now for new trade agreements more market access is that Brazil now wants to enter this game so I believe that for the next months or years we shall see more news on this scenario. Do you want to say? I just can add as regards that FDI as a way of platform I think that if you look at the Brazilian trend historically that's not been the past the main driver and we know sometimes the drivers for FDI so it's more than a defensive way that an offensive but I think that pattern is changing and this last study that I mentioned to you is showing that I can give you more info then but it's showing how this new trend is part of the new say internationalization wave in looking into those type of FDI and it's focusing some sectors as you mentioned there are some sectors that are more oriented to that type of I could also add that in particular in the high tech industry there is less concern about the origin or the physical place where you are because most of the value is going to come from a software code and that doesn't have a mating somewhere brand I think it's so it's more about tapping into wells of innovation and smartness that's what matters where you are right so if we can become global and innovate together like EMC as a global company is doing innovation in Brazil that is impacting globally that IP is going to 86 countries and more that's nice and if a Brazilian company wants to tap into a well of knowledge somewhere maybe in the United States and has means to get there that's also for the high tech and digital economy there's less of a concern and I think that the trend in the near future as I mentioned technology being on board basic industries that's also going to become the norm right you have things like 3D printing coming on right so you'll be able to actually manufacture anything where you are just by shipping code all over the internet right that's how you you're going to be able to transfer a piece to the space station in the near future you're going to have a 3D printer there and oh I need that part send me the software and I'm going to print it there so location is no longer a matter of you know a credential for you anymore that's what I expect for the world and I want Brazil to be part of that together with the United States Carly Packard has one more thing and FDI is often seen as dollars or whatever the currency you're dealing with you know of transferring from one market to another market it's seen as a foreign direct investment to come in in a physical usually a physical way but I am looking at FDI as investment of everything like ideas so I think in your world when you're talking about competitiveness and the virtual nature of how exchanges are taking place between companies in the United States in this case United States and Brazil I look at this as much more in a holistic way than just transfers of money to go build a physical plant or physical business to a sales office or distribution or manufacturing or an R&D or whatever so I just wanted to add that it's I think it's very significant when you're trying to open up people's sort of minds that there are people out there who will collaborate with you who will buy your products or sell your products or participate in the enterprise whatever that business is I know I'm stating a lot of obvious things but it's very important to think of how big where the opportunities are this is helpful, very helpful and also what does it mean to have so many bilateral investments in terms of mutual commitment between the two countries and the companies from the two countries I believe this is also very important to highlight that when it's different of only having trade flows because trade flows can be spent at any time because you can just withdraw your contract and so but if you have an investment in that country it really means that you have a strong commitment you want long term benefits from both sides but I think this is really a very key feature of investments and I think with that we're going to be finishing this event because it's your report I just wanted to ask you if did you want to say anything in closing or have you said everything do you want to say anything? I think it's almost everything we have, as I said we see it as a big first important step as from here we need to start thinking what will be our next step so that we keep moving bilateral, US, Brazil agenda for us in Apex Brazil it's the same, this is like only ground leveling for us in such way we can really move on again fostering Brazilian investment here and attracting American investment into Brazil and really working with our partners, select USA, C&I Brazil in this coalition I would also like to thank the Brazilian embassy here for all the support you have been giving us since the beginning of this initiative and we are really looking forward for the next months to come and to see concrete things happening after this these numbers have proved that the relationship is good the salt is growing so let's really make it growing more so the report is the Brazil US investments map and I'm assuming we're going to get a link for the report so we can put it up on the America's website so you'll be able to find it there I just want to thank Antonio Zephanini I want to thank Rodrigo with the EMC Ambassador from select USA thank you so much Constanza with C&I and Anna with Apex it's been a labor of love so I really appreciate your time I appreciate everybody watching thank you very much, round of applause