SAO PAULO, Brazil - At a Wal-Mart-like retail store in this sprawling industrial city, Edivaldo Ribeiro strolls by a wall of Brazilian-made television sets with images of a Portuguese-speaking Scooby Doo, and he passes the flat screen plasma TVs selling for thousands of dollars.
He stops in front of a much more modest model with a 14-inch screen, peers at the sale tag, then steps back, blanching at the price of about $150.
"This TV is more than half my salary," said Ribeiro, 36, who earns about $275 a month. "I can't afford to pay for this right now. I'm just looking to see if maybe I can get it by the end of the year."
The cost of the Brazilian TVs - at least twice what similar models would be in the United States - reflects just how difficult it is here for many people to buy one.
But if U.S. negotiators at the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit in Miami later this month get their way, the next time Ribeiro considers buying a TV, he might be able to afford one.
U.S. officials are pushing for a reduction in most tariffs on exports of electronics and other products to Brazil, as well as to other countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
The easing or elimination of tariffs would, for example, open the door to imported TVs that would be cheaper than Brazilian-made models.
Brazil's potential loss could be a gain for U.S. and especially Miami exporters of goods - ranging from pharmaceuticals to water heaters to airplane parts - who could see a windfall of new business.
Last year, about $25 billion in exports passed through Miami, mostly to Latin America. About $3 billion of that went to Brazil.
But getting Brazil, South America's largest economy, to open some of its home-grown industries to outside competition is easier said than done.
Under the watch of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil has emerged as a key critic of the rules that would govern the proposed 34-nation trading bloc, leading countries like Venezuela and Argentina in opposition.
The criticism stems from fear that the removal of tariffs on products such as television sets would lead to an invasion of cheaper imports and an end to a $5 billion electronics industry that now employs about 40,000 people and has links to as many as 160,000 jobs.
That's a risky proposition for a country with a 20 percent unemployment rate and an economy trying to recover from three years of recession.
The tariffs have kept business going for decades by up to doubling and even tripling the price of imported gizmos ranging from headphones to baby monitors.
"Brazil's electronic sector is very fragile," said Paulo Saab, president of Eletro, a national association of electronic production manufacturers. "Our position is that we have to participate in (FTAA) discussions, but for our sector, the rules have to be very well-studied. We have to have some protection."
The industry already competes with an active smuggling network that brings electronics across the border from Paraguay and accounts for up to 20 percent of electronics products on the market, Saab said.
An economic slump that began in 1999 also has hurt the industry. In 2000, for example, 5.2 million TV sets were sold. This year, an estimated 4.6 million are expected to sell. "We are fragile now because of our internal situation and because of our present market, which has not developed in the last three years," Saab said.
One tangible benefit from an easing of tariffs would a boom in traffic through South Florida ports.
"A lot of that trade would come through the Port of Miami or Miami International Airport," said Frank Nero, president of the Beacon Council, Miami-Dade's economic development agency. "That has a great spillover effect, because when you're talking about goods and services, you're talking about the people who drive the trucks, work the forklifts, business people who come here."
Juan N. Cento, president of FedEx's Latin America and Caribbean Division, said his Miami-based operation was especially well positioned to reap the benefits of a trade agreement.
"Free trade of the Americas is about everything from Canada all the way down to Tierra del Fuego, and Miami plays a key role because of where we're physically situated," Cento said.
Cento says he expects millions more packages to flow through the region if the FTAA is adopted - a major boost for companies like his.
But electronics would clearly be among the biggest potential winners should Brazil lower or remove its tariffs.
"I would immediately jump into the fray," said Victor Levis, 48, whose Miami Gardens company Magnetics USA specializes in selling electronics to Latin America but does not export to Brazil.
Levis buys electronics in bulk shipments from Asia and stores them at his warehouse. From there, he sends smaller orders - microphones by the 100-batch, for example - to Latin America in shipping containers. His best sales this year have been in equipment for disc jockeys.
Surrounded by boxes of cell phone parts, surge protectors and video joysticks, Levis says he could empty his warehouse in days if Brazil opened up. But Levis isn't optimistic. He says he would be stunned if Brazil agreed to the U.S. demands.
"I'm not even remotely holding my breath," he said. "The new president, Lula, his approach is much less free-market than even his predecessors."
That's because in Brazil, political pressure - on the streets and in the corridors of power - is mounting against FTAA, scheduled for final agreement by 2005.
"We have still lots of things to discuss," said Maurice Costin, executive director of the department of international relations and foreign trade for FIESP, the largest industry advocacy group in Brazil.
Meanwhile, Brazilian consumers will continue to pay the high price.
"I feel like I'm being robbed," said Marco Barbara, a lawyer, hoping to spend no more than $1,500 on a TV, DVD player, refrigerator and stove.
"I was in Miami two years ago and the prices there are so much cheaper," he said. "I don't know why they don't open up. There is space for everybody in the market."
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