Brazil’s Foreign Trade to Get Conflict Mediation Chamber

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Trade disputes between importers and exporters may be resolved through a mediation chamber, rather than being necessarily judicialized. The plan is to speed up processes that can be costly and time-consuming at the court for many years.

The measure also seeks to benefit small and medium traders who do not have a sufficiently strong legal structure to wage international battles.

The news was launched on Monday, August 26th, by the Brazilian Foreign Trade Association (AEB), which will host the chamber, available to anyone,  whether or not associated to the entity.

According to AEB’s vice president Arthur Pimentel, there are thousands of foreign trade dispute cases at Brazilian courts, which take years to reach a conclusion.

“Brazil is currently experiencing a culture change in the area of disputes concerning foreign trade. The whole world is moving in this direction. It is necessary to try to divert the focus from courts, which have got a lot of demand, and especially reach medium and small companies because large companies are better able to sort out solutions,” said Pimentel.

According to him, the chamber will be a space of confidentiality, focused on Brazilian and foreign private companies, interested in establishing a shorter time to solve cases, thus promoting an economy of resources, that is, making the process much less costly than the judicial path.

The cases that will be addressed range from problems with product delivery, which may have some defect or non-compliance with the order placed, to issues related to exchange, payment or port procedures, and so on.

The AEB Chamber of Foreign Trade is accessible via the entity’s website. The telephone +55 21 2544-0048 is also available. There will also be training courses for people interested in specializing in conflict mediation in the area of foreign trade.