Federal deputy Arnaldo Jardim (Cidadania-SP), rapporteur of the project that establishes the National Policy on Critical and Strategic Minerals, stated this Monday, 4th, that he intends to speed up the processing of the proposal in the Chamber and work towards its approval this week.
“I want to have the project approved by Wednesday, the 6th. I will read the report in tomorrow’s Chamber session”, said the parliamentarian during the presentation of the text.
The rapporteur’s expectation is that, with the opinion presented, it will be possible to quickly move forward in negotiations with the benches and enable deliberation in plenary by the middle of the week.
According to Jardim, he would like the text to be approved before President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) travels to the United States, for a meeting with American President Donald Trump on Thursday, May 7. The topic of rare earths is on the radar of the bilateral agenda.
The parliamentarian spent the last few hours ironing out the rough edges on the text. He also met with the president of the Chamber, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), in the morning in Brasília. Voting is scheduled for this Tuesday, 5th.
The proposal deals with the creation of guidelines for the development of the chain of critical and strategic minerals in the country, considered essential for the energy transition and the advanced technology industry.
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National sovereignty
The rapporteur of the project that establishes the National Policy on Critical and Strategic Minerals stated that the construction of his opinion on the subject was based on the need for Brazil not to subject itself to being just an exporter of critical minerals and rare earths, but rather a value aggregator.
“National sovereignty is a pillar of the text. We will not subject ourselves to being exporters. We want to add value to Brazilian products”, he said.
The statements took place this Monday, 4th, at a press conference in the Chamber of Deputies, after having released its report. Voting on the proposal is scheduled for this week.
The approved opinion establishes as a principle the limitation of the export of raw materials without processing. The measure seeks to discourage the sale of raw minerals and encourage the processing and transformation stages to occur in the country, expanding the capture of economic value throughout the production chain.
The proposal also creates a progressive incentive logic in which, as the company advances in the mineral processing phases in Brazil, it will receive greater tax benefits.
The rapporteur chose to maintain an environment open to foreign capital, with receptivity to investments regardless of the country of origin, as long as they are aligned with the incorporation of technology and the strengthening of the production chain in Brazil. The guideline is to attract projects that expand national processing and value-adding capacity.
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