- The Folha Online reports that Apple wants to manufacturer the iPhone, the MacBook, and possibly the iPod in Brazil. The objective would be to lower costs and increase sales of the devices. Brazil's import duties on electronics are among the highest in the world, causing hoards of Brazilians to load up their bags with iPods on regular trips to Florida and New York.
- An American journalist living in Sao Paulo, Seth Kugel, wrote an article in the GlobalPost where he wonders if Brazil is Iran's best friend in the West. Recent events tend to indicate that Brazil, indeed, has become somewhat cozy with the controversial nation, from President Lula urging the US to hold back sanctions against Iran, to Brazilian politicians and business leaders making field trips to Tehran.
- My buddy Mike sent me an article from the Economist that details the fight for Rio de Janeiro's oil revenues. It appears that most of the states feel that the money should be shared equally, while Rio depends on it to keep their
fantastic, high quality public services.
- Brasil Econômico writes of an upscale Brazilian beer, called Xingu, that plans to expand internationally. The beer's creator, Cesario Mello Franco, sold the brand to Kaiser in 2001 but maintained the international distribution rights himself. Now that Kaiser has been acquired by Heineken, he sees a fantastic opportunity and a big paycheck ahead of him if he is able to convince the Dutch company to take it global.
- Earlier this week the US and Brazil appeared to tentatively resolve a trade spat that started with US cotton subsidies. Michael Grunwald at Time tells us the details of the resolution, which incredibly includes US$147 million a year from the US government to Brazilian agribusiness. As weird as that sounds, the US is paying off Brazilian agriculture companies in order to keep its subsidies to US cotton farmers.
- Just eight years ago, Subway had a measly two stores in Brazil. But they have of goal of passing McDonalds as the largest fast food chain in the world by 2014. Through an aggressive expansion, today Subway has 408 Brazilian stores. Exame has an interesting read (Portuguese) about how they accomplished it.
- Brazil sent their Trade Minister and a 100 person delegation to Iran to explore business opportunities. Maybe in the vacuum of the US and other western nations, there are lots of opportunities.
- Delta plans to add flights from Detroit to Sao Paulo. It's surprising this route didn't exist before -- since both GM and Ford have headquarters in the two cities.
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