Brazil

Achieved

The Impacts

Our initiatives have made a positive, measurable difference in many ways.

Introducing a new system transformed the previous manual licence vetting process involving two, separate systems into one where fully compliant low-risk requests are automatically assessed and approved within minutes of payment confirmation. Also, when a licence is queried, it no longer returns to the back of the queue – now, it receives priority.

As a result, average approval times are projected to fall by up to 9.5 days, or 90%, a licence for high-volume imports, such as LED lamps, washing machines and refrigeration compressors.

Also, instead of having to obtain a permit for every shipment, a licence will typically cover multiple shipments, valid for up to four years regardless of quantity. This is expected to translate into almost 37,000 fewer licence requests a year and an average cost reduction of US$ 47 a licence, representing total annual savings of US$ 1.4 million for traders.

Combined with the introduction of a robust risk-management system, digitalisation freed up scarce resources within the National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology (INMETRO), the standards agency responsible for issuing import licences. This allowed it to better focus on high-risk applications, enhancing the prospect of greater compliance and consumer protection. It also helped to build inter-agency cooperation and private sector trust in the licensing process, encouraging future collaboration.

Brazil can expect to generate more revenues from efficiency gains and higher throughput of licence applications, simultaneously affording greater safety for consumers. The longer term benefits to traders may be even greater than these results show as predictability and fewer delays may lead to reduced inventories and increased customer satisfaction. The reduced overheads may, in time, be passed on to consumers or reinvested in the business.

The Challenge

As Brazil integrated further into global supply chains, the demand for import licences for a wide range of consumer and durable goods was doubling year-on-year.

INMETRO was struggling to cope with the sheer volume of requests for everything from household appliances to toys. Traders had to use different systems to complete a licence request, which would then be vetted manually by INMETRO officials. This was creating serious backlogs, with many requests taking up to 90 days to process. The absence of comprehensive risk management also increased the prospect that potentially harmful shipments might escape detection.

The agency had deployed temporary fixes to help mitigate these delays but recognised that a more sustainable solution was required.

What We Did

Brazil’s transition to a more open economy has created a surge in demand for consumer and durable goods. INMETRO recognised the need for a sustainable solution to the backlogs this caused in processing applications. The Alliance worked with INMETRO and the private sector to introduce modern risk management and IT systems, enabling approval of fully-compliant, low-risk applications within minutes of payment and a more streamlined appeals procedure.

The project concentrated on two core objectives:

1. Introduction of a risk-based system to tackle the one-size-fits all licensing treatment of every shipment, regardless of risk profile
2. Integration of the licensing process into Brazil’s new Single Window, Portal Único, in close collaboration with the Secretariat of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of the Economy (SECEX), allowing traders a single point of contact.