President Of Brazil Drops Taxes To Guarantee Your Next iPad Is Made In Rio

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Faced with the ongoing PR crisis of suicides and alleged human rights violations of its Chinese contractors, it’s looking increasingly like Apple might shift a sizable portion of their iPad production to Brazil. To prepare, Brazil’s president lowered taxes on producing and purchasing tablets in the South American country.


Tuesday, Brazil Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo announced the government would provide tablets regulatory relief amounting to a 36 percent price cut. One measure will put equipment for tablet manufacture on par with incentives offered PC notebook makers. The changes exempt tablet producers from a 9.25 percent PIS tax, cut the country’s IPI sales tax to 3 percent from 15 percent and reduce the import tax.

“Regulation opens the door for more investment,” Bernardo is quoted in the local press. Last month, Brazil President Dilma Roussef told a Beijing audience Foxconn has invested $12 billion in a possible manufacturing site. The site could begin making iPad’s as soon as November, another Brazil minister said.

Brazil’s enticement of iPad manufacturing is part of a concerted effort to increase foreign companies relocating to the nation. The South American country reported a 42 percent increase in consumer imports during 2010.

[Folha.com, Bloomberg]

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