No surprises, the country is deeply hostile to capitalism and innovation. Brazil is not poor by accident. Too bad, as this could have been a boon to small businesses.
Also as a reminder, Brasil had a military dictatorship overthrow a social democratic movement in order to implement economic privatization. Bolsonaro is famously a huge fan of the dictatorship years.
The dictatorship was US backed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Brazilian_coup_d%27%C3%A9...
The issue seems to be a juggernaut company like Facebook, with all the flaws that it has, trying to enter the payment sector of a developing country without regulation or notice.
More likely Brazil's central bank doesn't want competition with its own payment system (Pix).
Sure, but payment processing, money transfers, e-wallets etc. are regulated matters in Brazil as they are in the EU and in the US.
Facebook is not registered as a financial institution and is not a participant in the Brazilian Payments System, unlike PayPal and other local and international players, so you can figure out why the Central Bank put a stop to Facebook's launch.
I wouldn't engage.
The govt there tried to buy some software from me and then tried to tax the international sale by %40 after the price was agreed. I added the tax on top and they pulled out.
I have a unofficial free for Latin America donation program for different software because of all the end users from there who can’t afford it. They write to me explaining their situation.
I think a distinction should be made, if at all possible, between capitalism and corporatism. Brazil is pro-corporatist and anti—capitalist. This is common in Latin America with its crazy wealth distribution.
I'm not surprised. In general, import duties are around 60%, and that's not even the full story. The (foreign) company I work for sent me a development board once; when it arrived here I found out that, in addition to those 60%, I'd have to pay 18% state taxes. I was expecting this to add up to 78%, or even 1.6 * 1.18 = 89%, but in fact it's computed like (1.6 / (1 - 0.18)) = 95%.
Ostensibly, these tariffs are meant to protect the local industry from foreign competition. I heard that there are certain other countries trying to do the same; they should be careful what they wish for.
I understand the rational for protectionism and at the same time worry about the future it will lead to. The ability to buy just about anything from just about anywhere was one of the things I really liked about the US.
These rates only harm the population and businesses that need to import technology to maintain work operations.
Bro, do you even lift?
https://www.dentons.com/en/issues-and-opportunities/global-t...
https://santandertrade.com/en/portal/establish-overseas/braz...
https://www2.deloitte.com/br/en/pages/tax/articles/sistema-t...
They are avoiding a monopoly to surge.
> "Brazil is poor".
I guess one has to travel.
It's rightly classified as an emergent country. It has deep social and poverty problems that needs addressing even though it's a regional economic force.
Brazil is definitely capitalist but it's hard to do business there - 144th place in economic freedom index.
Not really. GDP is large, but that's only because the population is large. Per capita GDP is around US$ 9k, which makes us poorer than Mexico or Argentina. For comparison, per capita GDP in Sweden is something like US$ 54k.
I remember being taught in school that Brazil is the n-th richest country in the world, and if only that wealth were evenly distributed we could all enjoy a welfare state like in Europe. That is simply not possible. But I guess many people here still believe it because the country has a few highly visible pockets of wealth.