Brazil’s congress has removed an amendment to apply a tax known as PIS/Cofins to soybean sales of some domestic buyers from a bill to simplify taxation of Brazilian companies abroad. The country’s Agricultural Minister Neri Geller and President Dilma Rousseff both did not support the tax as agriculture has been a rare positive sector in the country’s otherwise sluggish economy. Brazil’s vegetable oil association, Abiove, which represents multi-national companies such as Bunge, Cargill, ADM, and Louis Dreyfus, stated that the tax would not have affected exports as many feared, but it would have increased costs for the entire soy production chain in the country. Those who proposed the tax stated that it was done so as a deterrent to speculation or hoarding soybeans to sell after the price increases.
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