Brazil govt to decide on quality controls for handset imports

By Gerald Jeffris, Dow Jones Newswires

Brazil's trade ministry later this month will deliberate on whether to require quality controls for licensing imports of cellphone equipment, Trade Minister Fernando Pimentel said Thursday.

Pimentel said the ministry's foreign-trade council, Camex, at its meeting scheduled for Jan. 25 would decide on whether to require Anatel, the Brazilian telecom regulatory agency, to issue quality certifications before granting import permits for cellphone equipment.

"We want to impede the entrance of low-quality equipment to the country," Pimentel said following a meeting with Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo.

The possible measure is aimed at a slowing a flood of cheap foreign equipment, especially from China, which has nearly doubled its cellphone exports to Brazil since 2009.

The move to possible action on the imported equipment comes after Brazil's electronics manufacturers' association, Abinee, lodged a complaint with the trade ministry in October that some foreign-made cellphones were entering the country at around $12 each, less than one-third of the cost of similar models produced locally.