Customs “zero cargo clearance” strike announced

In a national assembly, the tax auditors from the Federal Revenue Office – Customs (Receita Federal)  approved the operation “zero cargo clearance” with effect from 16 October 2017, meaning that there will only be customs clearance of cargoes considered essential, such as medicines, hospital supplies, livestock and provisions for vessels’ crews.

The strikers have threatened to go on full strike as from 1 November 2017 if the wage agreement reached with the government is not applied by 31 October 2017.

According to the National Union of Tax Auditors (Sindifisco), each day of strike results in financial losses with delays and uncollected taxes worth about US$ 32 million apart from containers bottlenecking in the Brazilian ports.