ReData is a window of opportunity.
Brazil’s former foreign trade secretary on why targeted incentives do not mean an end to protectionism, how the customer’s currency changes an investment, and the practical work between a tax benefit and a project that can use it. Eight files connect the contribution with researched context, diagrams and data.
Interview with Adam Roberts · 29 October 2026. Edited for length and clarity from the interview of 29 October 2026. Client observations and investment assessments are Barral’s. Research checked 3 November 2026. Existing Entelligencia report illustrations. They do not identify a contributor’s clients or depict a named transaction unless expressly stated.
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Welber Barral is a partner at Barral Parente Pinheiro and was Brazil’s Secretary of Foreign Trade from 2007 to 2011. His work spans international trade, investment, tax and regulatory questions. He has also served in dispute resolution at the WTO and Mercosur.
What has shaped your view of trade and public policy?
I am a lawyer by training. Most of my career has been in consulting, mixed with academic life. I worked on international trade at the beginning of the WTO, spent time in Geneva and Washington, and then came back to Brazil and joined the government as secretary.
It was a very good time for Brazil. We travelled, made agreements and then had to respond to the financial crisis. We worked a lot and had a great team, but the international environment was also more predictable than it is now.
After government, we founded the consulting firm and later the law firm. I have come back to teaching once a week and want to write more. I am interested in legacy: writing, teaching and doing things that can influence trade policy in Brazil.
Does ReData signal a wholesale change in Brazil’s trade policy?
The Brazilian trading system is not going to change quickly. Brazil is very slow to make institutional changes. Trade agreements are one route to change, and the agreement with Europe is important.
Except for trade agreements, I don’t see the Brazilian tariff system changing very quickly. There are particular situations: trade agreements are one, ReData is another. ReData is a window of opportunity.
We are doing the tax and legal work for investors on three projects. One is in an export processing zone; the other two are for the Brazilian domestic market. Those are different propositions.
What separates the export model from the domestic market?
The export processing zone has additional tax advantages, but the model we are working on has to export the services. It is not for the Brazilian domestic market.
The other projects are for the domestic market, where there is a lot of demand. In Brasília, ministries, the central bank and other institutions need space for data centers. There is real demand, and investors are seeing that.
Why does the currency of the revenue matter so much?
A lot of investment in Brazilian infrastructure, energy and minerals is made to export raw or basically processed material. Those investors have a hedge in dollars.
If you bring money from abroad to invest in a project that sells to Brazilian consumers, you have a huge currency risk. If you borrow in reais in Brazil, interest rates make a long-term project challenging. That is one reason export-oriented projects can be attractive to long-term investors.
Why are high tariffs so difficult to unwind?
There is a view that foreign investors come to build industry in Brazil because they want to sell to the Brazilian market, or to markets covered by its trade agreements. Otherwise, they would export to Brazil.
The domestic market is huge. A large consumer-products company does not want to be outside it. That creates a trap: reducing tariffs can be seen as risking the investment that came because of those tariffs.
We work with foreign companies that complain about tariffs. Once they are in Brazil, they ask for more tariffs. That is not unique to Brazil, but the size of the domestic market is a major factor here.
Where do critical minerals fit into the technology build?
We have seen a boom in foreign investors looking for lithium, graphite and niobium. We work with companies from different origins, including American, Australian, Canadian and Indian investors.
They are looking at specific minerals and at different levels of processing and refining. Some want to enter with equipment, technology or services, rather than only at the extraction stage.
The interest is very clear. We created a group in the firm to work on minerals because the situation is complex: compliance, environmental licensing and bureaucratic delays all matter.
What holds those projects back?
There are environmental, state and municipal licences, and administrative processes that take too much time. Companies are trying to come in at an early stage, including Brazilian companies raising capital abroad.
The problem I see is institutional: the length of time. Beginning exploration can take five to ten years, and that can be too long for some funds and companies. The level of interest is amazing, but interest does not remove those procedures.
What should infrastructure investors understand about tax reform?
Brazil has an extremely complicated tax system. The reform is a huge change, moving towards two main consumption taxes. It should simplify the system and make it easier for companies to use credits in the production chain.
The transition is the difficult part. At points, companies will have the old taxes and the new taxes at the same time, with legal discussions and litigation over the value of credits. The full transition is due to finish in 2033.
Beyond the general system, special regimes still matter. Different sectors can have different incentives, and those need to be considered in the investment model.
What is the work between identifying a benefit and actually using it?
First, understand the current position. Then apply for the benefits. Normally, a company needs to apply and receive the qualification; the benefit is not simply automatic.
The other work is to follow the tax reform and participate in the policy discussion so that changes do not diminish an advantage unexpectedly. Companies also need to look ahead to what changes mean for their projects, including incentives that will end during the transition.
Can an investor treat ReData and other special regimes as variations of the same thing?
No, they are different. Each regime has a different law, and sometimes different authorities. Drawback, for example, has existed for decades and is being reformed while keeping its basic features.
Some incentives sit with the industry ministry, many with the finance ministry, and some technology and innovation incentives require approval from the science and technology ministry. They vary according to the law and the authority that approves them.
The tax reform can also affect them differently. You have to check each one.