Brazil has a two-tier health-care system, but the publicly funded Sistema \u00danico de Sa\u00fade (SUS) is the sole provider for nearly three-quarters of the country\u2019s roughly 213 million people. The SUS includes pharmacare for essential medicines, although a recent study suggested<\/a> less than a third of the population receives all its prescription medications free of charge through the public system.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n \t Either way, the Brazilian government is the main buyer of pharmaceuticals in a market that was worth US$35.6 billion in 2023. Foreign companies need local representation to take part in bids. \u201cThe Brazilian pharmaceutical market is a big market,\u201d Fran\u00e7a said, before adding: \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of companies from India interested in it.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu confirmed the federal government sees a \u201cmajor and growing pharmaceutical market\u201d in Mercosur, where Canadian drugs currently face tariffs of up to 14 per cent. In Brazil specifically, Canada exported about $41 million worth of pharmaceuticals last year. \u201cNegotiations are currently progressing and we are examining various sectors, including pharmaceuticals, to ensure we have an agreement in the best interest of Canadians and that advances our trade diversification objectives,\u201d Huzaif Qaisar wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n The pressure is on for Canada to secure its deal. Mercosur\u2019s provisional trade agreement with the European Union, which was decades in the making, took effect<\/a> last Friday. Its tariff reductions will be phased in gradually, Fran\u00e7a said, which means there is time for Canada to catch up.<\/p>\n Not everyone is enthusiastic about that. One of the most controversial aspects of the EU-Mercosur trade talks involved<\/a> agricultural exports. France was especially concerned<\/a> about an influx of low-cost beef from Brazil and Argentina. The provisional deal phases in access for beef to Europe slowly, with the first 99,000 tonnes subject to a reduced tariff of 7.5 per cent.<\/p>\n On this side of the Atlantic, the Canadian Cattle Association is urging the federal government to avoid opening Canada\u2019s beef market further through the deal with Mercosur. The group representing 60,000 cattle farmers and feedlots across the country said that beef imports from Mercosur regions grew by 238 per cent from 2021 to 2025. \u201cCanadian beef farmers and ranchers are opposed to any beef access in a Mercosur trade deal which would result in increased imports of low-quality beef for Canadian consumers,\u201d Tyler Fulton, president of the association, wrote<\/a> in a statement.<\/p>\n Gustavo F\u00e1vero, the head of economic affairs at the Brazilian embassy in Ottawa, said most of the beef that Canada currently imports from Brazil is used to make processed foods, such as canned soup. \u201cWe are not a threat to local producers,\u201d he said. Fran\u00e7a, the ambassador, said Brazilian consumers regard Canadian steak as a luxury product. \u201cThere is space for both countries and in both markets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Brazilian diplomats see room for co-operation in other areas. F\u00e1vero noted fuel standards in Canada requiring growing use of ethanol, which Brazil produces in large quantities from sugar cane. Brazil has historically done a lot of trade in biofuels with the U.S., which is also its major competitor, but that has been disrupted by the trade war and Brazil\u2019s rising domestic demand. \u201cWe also see the opportunity with biofuels with Canada,\u201d F\u00e1vero said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brazil would also be interested in Canada\u2019s small modular reactors, Fran\u00e7a said. \u201cIf the Canadian producers of SMRs get to Brazil or to Mercosur, they can give you something that you don\u2019t have now: that\u2019s scalability,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cWe need this equipment, but of course, it\u2019s not only Canada that can sell it to us.\u201d<\/p>\n Canada has a strong and positive image in the South American country, Fran\u00e7a said. Brazilians can look askance at investment from the U.S. and China, he added, but that does not apply to Canada, the source of about $19.8 billion in foreign direct investment to their country in 2024. Fran\u00e7a, who served as foreign affairs minister under former president Jair Bolsonaro from 2021 to 2022, said he had a message to the Canadian government after he arrived in Ottawa the following year.<\/p>\n \u201cLook, you have a great deal of soft power,\u201d he recalled saying. \u201cCash it in,\u201d he said, in Brazil and wider South America. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to wait for the Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 A free trade agreement with the South American trade bloc known as Mercosur could make it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3519,17,235,3659,6953,290,3171,401],"class_list":{"0":"post-34115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-brazil","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-health-care","12":"tag-mercosur","13":"tag-national","14":"tag-pharma","15":"tag-trade"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\t![\"Mark](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mark_Carney-April_2026-Sean_Kilpatrick-CP176214690-1920x1280--768x512.jpeg\")
\t<\/a><\/p>\n