Brazilian (and Chinese) Business Law Trends for 2013.

This post, as many others, has been inspired by Dan Harris' China Law Blog.  The link to the original post is also at the bottom.

Interestingly, some China trends he mentioned are the opposite of the Brazilian legal trends on the same subjects. It invites comparison:

1. China will step up even further its crackdown on foreigners in China violating its visa/immigration laws. 

1. Brazil is set to make immigration easier, specially for specialized workers. Legal changes are expected to take place in March, 2013.

2. China will increase its efforts to root out and shut down illegal and unregistered foreign businesses. 

2. Brazil is not seeing any special movement on this area.

3. China will increase its tax collection efforts.

3. Brazil is already super effective in tax collection. What we are about to see, though, is an increase in the control and taxation of international service and software sales. The Brazilian Revenue Service has just put the "Siscoserv" in place. This system controls every international service transaction in the country. Personally, I see it as a harbinger of tax increase. After all, the government does not have much left to tax.

4. China: Litigation is increasing.

4. Brazil: Arbitration is increasing. The Brazilian courts are broken, and everybody knows that. Arbitration is the only safe harbor for international investors. 

Other trends that were not mentioned for China, but are relevant for Brazil:

5. Infrastructure regulation will remain uncertain, as the government sorts out how to fix the legal mess it made in 2012.

6. Regulatory compliance for consumer goods (toys, medicines, electronics) will soar. 
  As more and more imported products flow to the Brazilian economy, the pressure from the Brazilian industries will generate more and more non-tariff barriers to imports. It has just begun. 

What do you think?

China's Business Law Trends for 2013. Booorrring. | China Law Blog