CEOS help partners get down to business

In an effort to improve trade relations, Canada and Brazil have agreed to a joint CEO forum with six chief executives from each country getting together to discuss how to make trade between them easier. Ray Castelli, CEO of Weatherhaven is one of Canada’s representatives. The other Canadian chief executives represent telecom, banking, education, small business and aerospace.

Brazil has yet to name its members, but Castelli expects that to happen soon.

Despite not having yet met with the forum, Castelli has identified a number of areas he thinks could use improvement.

One is the certification process needed to bring a product to market in Brazil. For Weatherhaven, a maker of portable shelters that are used in remote mining and construction camps, that process took at least two years.

Brazil has very detailed regulations when it comes to workplace health and safety, Castelli said.

“There is a somewhat paternalistic approach to protecting workers,” Castelli said. “As a result, there are rules and regulations for everything ( including) workplace safety ( and) workplace accommodation. ( They are) probably among the best standards in the world for that kind of thing.”

It’s commendable, but it means there are a lot of prescriptive rules to follow, he said.

And Weatherhaven’s domeshaped tents didn’t comply.

Living quarters for workers have to meet certain height requirements but the rules only contemplated straight- walled tents and buildings.

So Weatherhaven had to show that the dome- shaped tents were just as humanitarian as a square building to get the regulations rewritten.

“So we weren’t allowed to sell our product for the first couple of years,” Castelli said.

Companies with new products have to prepare themselves for a long certification process, he said.

Castelli would also like to see some of the trade barriers dropped.

There is also a lot of protectionism, with high duties making it impractical to import goods from Canada, he said.

Weatherhaven, for example, faced high import duties on the steel frames for its tents, which is why it decided to manufacture locally.

But there are other areas where Brazil could benefit from lower import duties. For instance, Brazil is just developing its defence industry and Canada has a lot of great solutions that could be used in that sector, Castelli said.

“Yet, if everything you ship down there is going to be tied with a duty, it’s going to increase the cost and make it uncompetitive.”

A third concern is the length of time it takes to get a business visa. Sometimes business people only have a certain window of opportunity to act and if the visa doesn’t arrive in time, that opportunity is gone, he said.