Brazil: CADE proposal seeks increase in Fuel competition

Brazil’s antitrust regulator CADE presented a plan Tuesday that would seek to increase competition in the fuel market, adding to the debate over a recent price escalation that sparked an extensive transporters’ strike.

The proposal includes changes in tax legislation and the regulatory framework, such as lifting the ban on direct sales of ethanol from producers to gas stations, allowing refineries and distributors to have their own service stations, and for distributors to import fuels.

The study comes at a time when truckers are slowly ending a one-week national strike that blocked roads and cut supplies to key sectors.